Stripped Back. The row AW24

January 23, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

From one side, it’s a great pity The Row isn’t on New York Fashion Week’s schedule. From the other side, their presence in Paris in that brief moment between menswear and haute couture just works so well. Moving their operations here, they surely breathe down the local “minimal” brands’ necks. This season, Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen delivered a very stripped back collection that did the talking through sublime tailoring, sculptural silhouettes and a mostly-black color palette. A short, contoured jacket worn with a slim pant and rounded pumps; a dress belted for waist emphasis (and bright red tights for leg emphasis); an ultra-smooth, leaned-out leather jacket; a three-button jacket, wingtip tuxedo shirt and trousers that slightly recalibrate how we envision the brand. Even new bags were downsized and compact. What might this say about where the Olsen are in their lives? An evolving style? A changing relationship with the body? One answer could be that there are considerations towards an ever-changing wardrobe – one that accommodates greater ways of dressing while maintaining maximum ease.

Some The Row pieces that are on my mind right now…

ED’s SELECTION:

Simon Leather Gloves

Moon Oversized Cotton-poplin Shirt

Tasseled Leather Loafers

Leather Waist Belt

Bartelle Grain De Poudre Wool And Mohair-blend Maxi Skirt

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

In The Mood For… Magda Butrym Pre-Fall 2024

January 20, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

The latest Magda Butrym collection, photographed by Vitali Gelwich in the cinematic, soc-realist halls of Warsaw’s Palace of Science and Culture, is a sexy take on the designer’s sensual eveningwear and razor-sharp tailoring. Kept in the color palette of signature rose-red, white and black, the line-up, mood-wise, is somewhere between Wong Kar-Wai’s elusive “In The Mood For Love” (just take a look at the scarlet gown covered in bouquets of flowers) and David Leitch’s explosive “Atomic Blonde” (the black leather coat is giving badass secret agent). Butrym feels more and more confident in playing around with the feminine and masculine codes, and that shows. Her pre-fall 2024 heroine is both chic and “don’t cross me” in her all-black, all-leather looks. In case of accessories, the ultimate highlights are the maxi-length, ribbed scarves, nonchalantly worn like feather boas, and the hand-crocheted shopper bag: a nod to the brand’s Polish heritage and love for artisanship.

Here are couple of my favorite Magda Butrym pieces you can get now…

ED’s SELECTION:

Spiral Appliquéd Satin Sandals

Gathered Cutout Floral-print Silk And Wool-blend Top

Embellished Satin Mules

Silk Satin-trimmed Wool Blazer

Strapless Ruched Floral-print Stretch-silk Dress

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

Masterclass. Wales Bonner AW24

January 18, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

This Paris Fashion Week, there are brands that scream and shout into the void. But there are also brands like Wales Bonner that focus on quiet gestures with grand impacts. The autumn-winter 2024 collection, titled “Dream Study“, was the result of Grace Wales Bonner‘s time spent in Howard University’s Moorland-Springarn Research Centre, imbuing a contemporary collegiate wardrobe with nostalgic sentiment for its illustrious alumni. What really caught her interest in the storied Black university’s archives, though, were the yearbooks. “Particularly the ones from the 1990s,” she explained. “Every year they have a homecoming, with performances of different hip-hop artists coming to celebrate. So it was kind of both exploring the history of the place, but also this kind of musical intersection that’s always been something important to me. So I was thinking about conscious and cosmic hip-hop. How it kind of takes on the mantle of intellectual thinking, and kind of takes it further.” Models (Tyler Mitchell and Imaan Hammam among them) wore academic staples, beautifully adorned, as well as relaxed cashmere knitwear, tailoring trimmed with crocheted Indian mirror-work, while outwear pieces were crafted from vintage kantha quilts. Note the feather brooches which were dotted with pearls, lapiz lazuli and amethyst beads. It’s fascinating to watch how Wales Bonner does this: teaching, foregrounding academic literary references (with every show, there’s a reading list), creating delightful, never-overworked collection (just over 30 looks), and building long-term collaborations with entities as far apart in fashion as adidas and Anderson and Sheppard of Savile Row.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

Recreation. Bode AW24

January 14, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

For autumn-winer 2024, Emily Adams Bode Aujla explores the evolution of athletic wear and character-building through the lens of American institutional sport and competition. The charming, vintage-y collection confirms once again that Bode could potentially head to Ralph Lauren in the future and be a stately successor of the all-American style. This season, the designer reimagines leisure and athletic apparel from the 1770s-1970s, and muses on sports and recreation being vital to our understanding of virtue, community, and history. Fantastic lace pieces were appliquéd with figures playing sports. There were colorful lurex sweaters decorated with field hockey sticks, knitted cardigans with intarsia basketball players, and a particularly elegant white silk jacquard with a tonal football print. The inspiration also manifested itself in more practical ways; like the handsome dark gray three piece suit; the waterproof, super-light zip jacket and matching pants decorated with patches; or the simple, unlined wool jacket inspired by the kind that football players wear to stay warm on the bench. Elsewhere even simple knit sweaters and t-shirts inspired by the design of hockey or football jerseys proved just as special.

Autumn 2024 also marks the third outing for Bode Aujla’s dedicated womenswear collection, and it’s worth noting that it’s developing into something pretty remarkable. Between the beaded 1920s slip dresses, the lavishly embellished knits and bra tops, the 1930s-inspired bias cut chiffon dresses, and super delicate (and super sexy) silk underpinnings and matching pointelle tank tops and panties, a sense of real pleasure and indulgence permeates her women’s clothes. Lately, there’s been lots of conversations regarding the ways in which women designers approach making clothes for women; oftentimes, the focus is on the fact that they design for women’s “real lives” meaning wearable, meaning comfortable, meaning suited for a wide range of bodies. Beyond all this, Bode Aujla is also tapping into women’s fantasies; their desire to wear beautiful things just for themselves. If anyone happens to join in their fun, well, that’s a bonus.

And here are couple of Bode goodies that have caught my eye lately…

ED’s SELECTION

Oslo Fair Isle Intarsia Wool Cardigan

Brodie Jacquard-knit Alpaca-blend Sweater

Grenier Fringed Embroidered Silk-twill Jacket

Frog And Pony Cropped Flocked Striped Cotton-blend T-shirt

Corinthia Embroidered Silk-blend Crepe De Chine And Guipure Lace Chemise

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

Dirty Glam. DsQuared2 AW24

January 13, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

No one does a show in Milan like Dean and Dan Caten. Their autumn-winter 2024 DsQuared2 show was about the idea of twins. Who better than the Canadian brothers should have a say in the representation of “the two sides of the coin,” as they said backstage? Drawing upon their own reality of being a sort of day-and-night double version of each other offered the Catens the occasion for an entertaining show – fun, uplifting, with the right amount of camp and lots of maximalist mashed-up styling. The cast was obviously made of sets of twins, one of which was dressed in Dsquared2’s typical grungy daywear; upon entering a “makeover machine,” the other twin emerged glammed up in the evening version of what the first was wearing. The set, a shiny white box, served as glossy backdrop for the finale coup-de-théâtre, with the Catens taking their bow – Dan looking macho in fitted black jeans and an alluring see-through glittery chiffon shirt, and Dean playing the diva in a flame-red hairdo and black corset dress slashed at the front revealing a great pair of legs, teetering with consummate confidence on ultra-high stilettos. They brought the house down. As for the clothes in the co-ed show, there was great outerwear of the outdoorsy, furry, and fringed variety; fabulous distressed and patched denim; fair isle knits, cargos, destroyed tees, trapper hats, and sequined chaps, all jumbled together and styled with slinky abandon. For evening, black dominated, with body-skimming and plunging necklines for the girls, and sultry slim tuxes with femme undertones for the boys. Haley Wollens’ styling makes DsQuared2 look hotter than ever. Fashion for the Catens is going in just one direction: sexy, sassy, with humor to spare, and entirely guilt-free.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!