BEAUTY: Clothing--Mithridate

The fairly new label Mithridate, headed by founder and creative director Demon Zhang showed an intriguing Fall-Winter 2021-2022 collection at London Fashion Week. At once simple and ornate (somehow, yes), the collection's lookbook and video were shot and filmed at an English country house but there is something--and this is just me--vaguely Russian about the silhouettes and decorative choices of the garments. I can't put my finger on it, but it feels beautifully Romantic and wintery while still being fashion forward: look at the voluminous bells on the men's trousers, the A-line coats, and the absolutely gorgeous embroidery of thorny branches and what looks like bejeweled bloody slashes (do take a look at the video!). I also love the botanical prints for men.

The official website offers scant little about the sense of the collection:

AW21: Automatiste

Mithridate’s Autumn Winter 2021 collection, ‘Automatiste’, is a profoundly personal response from founder and creative director Demon Zhang to her experience of the restrictive conditions of 2020. Throughout the months of isolation and uncertainty in Guangzhou, Zhang plumbed her subconscious for inspiration, embarking on a journey to discover her inner-self at a time when travel and external exploration were out of the question.

https://www.mithridate.uk/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Burberry

For London Fashion Week, Burberry presented a curious FW '21-'22 menswear collection which included kilts/skirts and some head-tilting, subtle symbology that looks like it comes from initiation rits of secret order traditions like the Masons. Indeed, the film of the collection felt a bit like watching one of Matthew Barney's CREMASTER films (and that is a compliment--I am a huge Matthew Barney fan and saw the entire CREMASTER cycle at the Guggenheim years ago).

But Burberry creative director Riccardo Tisci has a more "innocent" statement which seems totally incomplete. Maybe he is playing like Mrs. Prada and being deliberately coy about the true inspiration for the collection.

"The collection gently challenges and subtly reinvents traditions, inviting freedom of expression. Tailoring has a sense of twisted classicism, whilst quintessential house codes – the trench coat and Burberry beige – are evolved. Details and decoration evoke the notion of ceremony through badges and adornments – symbolising community and friendship, codes of belonging. 'For my first Burberry menswear-focused collection, I wanted to celebrate the freedom of expression. Enclosed indoors, I dreamt of the outdoors and its beauty, fuelled by the thought of the creativity that comes when we are together.'"

https://www.burberry.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--MAXXIJ

A little Craig Green, a little Rick Owens, MAXXIJ's FW '21-'22 collection "Future Blood" features tape straps, ruched sleeves and legs, asymmetry, and various iterations of puffy outerwear. It definitely references a future in a climate catastrophe-ravaged world where one might be a nomad, carrying everything along in pockets and pouches that attach. High concept survivalist clothing.

https://maxxij.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Prada and Raf Simons

For this FW '21-'22 collection during Milano Moda Uomo, two titans of fashion collaborated: Mrs. Prada worked with Raf Simons, the first time the pair have co-created a collection. And true to my prediction, the pair showed a COVID-quarantine inspired collection but instead of day pajamas, the pair decided to explore that old garment, the long john. In a post-show Zoom press conference, Prada and Simons said the collection was intended to work on an emotional level and not a narrative level. "We started talking very early on about what kind of piece could represent something very close to the body, literally being almost a representation of the body. We were looking for something that could be maybe a symbolic piece for all these kinds of feelings that we feel right now."

And the long john is a piece of clothing that evokes all sorts of feelings: it can be perceived as an infantilized garment like a child's onesie or romper, it can be seen as an Old West cowboy macho reference ("Sexual cowboy," as Simons put it! while Prada said her reference was "rock n' roll"), it is something that completely reveals the body in its outline but cocoons it as the same time. Warmth and comfort at the heart. I think that is the COVID response. They showed long johns of mohair, fine gauge knit, and Shetland wool, in patterns reminiscent of Art Deco or 70s English wallpaper, worn alone or as a foundation garment worn under shirts, trousers, suits, and outer coats. The video here presents a show of the garments in a Rem Koolhaas-OMA-designed set of fur-lined rooms (more comfort and warmth) for ten minutes, and the next thirty minutes are a wonderful, informative Q&A session with Prada and Simons and a FaceTime gathering of fashion students from around the world.

https://www.prada.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Etro

While he did not show any "day pajamas," Kean Etro sure made his Fall-Winter '21-'22 collection much  more relaxed and casual than collections past (it nearly verges on sportswear in some looks...nearly...I can forgive an occasional cagoule)! Inspired by the quarantine activity of reviewing the archive of the house of Etro (the equivalent of cleaning out a closet for you and me), Etro said, "I played with what we did with our wardrobes; clearing out, looking again, rediscovering, mixing things together, cleaning up... This helped me realize what the moment is—it’s an in and out time. I think [in the future] there will be a strong instinct to express yourself individually; to be your own stylist, be your own designer." Well said Kean Etro, that is something I have always thought when I choose my own clothing and what to wear. I am my own stylist, and while I may admire or even buy a piece of designer clothing, I am ultimately the one who will use it in whatever sartorial expression I want to make at the moment, incorporating it with other pieces either coordinating or contrasting, high or low. With that idea in mind, Etro incorporated into this collection embellished ghillie loafers, pastel cricket sweaters, and British-feeling plaids--he was after all a schoolboy in Cambridge! Yet he did not abandon the signature paisley and gloriously rich color palette the house is known for, and which I, being the maximalist that I am, simply love. Take a look at the video. Fashion journalist Luke Leitch summed it up: "When the models emerged en masse from their runway space into the wintery sunshine on Via Tortona they resembled friends reunited who, unconvinced of exactly what to wear, had instead decided to wear everything they could for the joy of it."

https://www.etro.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Fendi

For her FW '21-'22 collection during Milano Moda Uomo, Silvia Fendi showed a collection that referenced day pajamas... something I think we are going to be seeing from nearly every designer in the upcoming weeks of shows. Quilted puffer pieces, shearling fleece, soft camel hair coats, and comforting cotton rib-knits lend an at-home sense. Of the collection, Fendi said these are "Clothes that make you feel good. Because I do think that fashion can have a therapeutic aspect." Other fun details: collars that turn into extra sleeves which hang down to the waist (and which, presumably, can be wrapped around one's neck to create an integrated scarf), quilted slipper spats on shoes (!), and some more structured pieces with venting slashes. And I love Fendi's presentation of formalwear edged with the exact kind of piping one would find on a set of pajamas!

But the most interesting aspect of this collection was Fendi's collaboration with television presenter, comedian/actor, artist, and musician Noel Fielding. He is known here in the States as the most recent co-host of "The Great British Baking Show" (or "The Great British Bake-Off" as it is known in the UK). He designed sets of brightly colored squiggles, and a few free-form, cheery Fendi logos, all of which adorn sweaters, coats, and jackets! Fendi said, "I like him as a man, and he is a multifaceted talent: writing, comedy, music, art. This is something we all have to do today, I think, to change our own skins. And speaking of therapy, in his graphics you can read what you want to see, like colored yarns that have been thrown on the floor to make a pattern."

https://www.fendi.com/
http://noelfielding.co.uk/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Ermenegildo Zegna

The first offering at Milano Moda Uomo for the Fall-Winter '21-'22 season is from Ermenegildo Zegna. Creative director Alessandro Sartori and his team devised a new fabric of cashmere jersey in which to execute much of this loose, comfortable collection shown on both men and women, some mature (ageism is the last hurdle for the industry). The pandemic and work-from-home Zoom meetings have driven a further nail or two into the coffin of traditional business attire, and for this collection entitled "The (Re)Set," Sartori offers a slight nod to traditional details like lapels notched high at the collarbone and buttonable cuffs (along with blown-up, distorted versions of that classic menswear staple, the houndstooth check), but these appear on futuristic, monochromatic pieces like belted, kimono-style jackets and roomy, origami-shaped tops. These are daytime pajamas that can be worn out. But who goes out anymore? In fact, the theme of the film presentation is indoors (a bit of a David Lynchian surreal set of twelve rooms) vs. outdoors (modern Milanese locations like Piazza Olivetti, the new Bocconi campus, and Zegna’s own headquarters) and the juxtaposition of those two ideas. Watch: the film is obliquely thought-provoking if you see the patterns.

 

https://www.zegna.com/us-en/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Moschino

Moschino's Jeremy Scott can get a bit too cartoony and cheap for me, but I have to say this Fall-Winter '21-'22 collection is pretty interesting. Apparently Scott is a classic film fan and has been watching the Turner Classic Movie channel all during our global COVID quarantine. While in lockdown, Scott has also been painting. Of course both of these elements infiltrated his work and, according to fashion journalist Anders Christian Madsen, he presented a collection that was a mix of "the precision of Old Hollywood tailoring and the spontaneity of hand-painting. The lines of overcoats, tuxedos, and suiting with a 1940s persuasion were enhanced with Post-Impressionist brushstrokes, in some cases creating trompe l’oeil effects that Scott attributed to his passion for the study of painting." I love how he seems to have accented with painted sections the natural lines of shadows and light on a garment--and even the shine of leather on a Tom of Finland-inspired biker outfit! It is definitely cartoony but in the most engaging way possible...

https://www.moschino.com/