BEAUTY: Clothing--Uma Wang

Much like Kml from my last post (here), Uma Wang is new to my orbit as well. And I am glad she is here. Just look at the offerings from this Spring Summer '27 collection lookbook presented as part of Paris Fashion Week. Apparently she looked to images of the late adventure photographer and writer Peter Beard for a sense of rumpled, dashing, global, on-the-go-and-living-out-of-a-satchel style. But it turns out it takes some effort to achieve the effortless.

Fashion journalist Giulia di Giamberardino for Vogue gives us the technical information:

"Wang began with an exacting study of fabric—all sourced in Italy, all produced by Tuscan mills. Lightweight yet durable cotton was washed and treated to appear naturally worn-in. Linen, stained and dyed almost as though painted by hand, carried a similarly lived-in look. Another fabric incorporated a metallic component that gave structure to the garments she made from it, turning printed shirts into ideal travel companions that can be packed into a suitcase without losing their form. Another print depicted poppies. It originated from a photograph taken in a field near one of the company’s production facilities, yet poppies are also the flowers Wang keeps in her studio in China, making them, in a way, an emblem of the meeting of two cultures."

But let's take a closer look at this linen, metallic fabric, and poppy situation. The details, including the stunning cuts and silhouettes, are breathtaking. The collection feels artistic, exciting, alive.

https://umawang.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Kml

The brand Kml has not been on my radar until now. This Spring Summer '27 collection shown at Paris Fashion Week is enthralling. Even though the color palette is a restrained black and white and grey affair, the silhouettes and cuts are lyrical, primal. The KML website's mission statement says "Kml is an exploration of the present. It follows a research-based design approach which looks into the history of how humans dressed and how it evolved and continues to evolve to come up with meaningful designs that are relevant to our collective human identity." Indeed, this sweeping, placid collection speaks to so many places, ethnicities, beliefs, time periods ... there is a bit of traditional / ancient Japan, Turkey, Sufi, India, Bedouin ... in a beautifully tailored and structured way. Creative director and brand co-founder Ahmed Hassan trained as an architect and that rigor shows in the garments. Truly impressive.

https://kml.com.sa/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Sean Suen

I really like what is going on at the waists of these looks from Sean Suen's Spring Summer '27 collection at Paris Fashion Week. Reminiscent of cummerbunds, these elements look to be in knit and may or may not rise up from the waistband inside trousers which are turned down into wingtips. And if not a knit cummerbund, then a fantastic corset belt.

https://www.seansuen.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Dries Van Noten

After Dries Van Noten's emotional 2024 retirement from his house of 38 years (see his final collection here), Julian Klausner is now Creative Director. And this Spring Summer '27 collection at Paris Fashion Week marks his third menswear collection for the house.

Klausner has actually been with the house since 2018 as the head of womenswear. He has said that the task of taking over the menswear division as well seemed daunting at first but he has proven himself a worthy successor to Van Noten. And for this collection, he actually brought a sense of womenswear to the fabric choices and garments. "We looked at the world of lingerie, thinking what lingerie can mean to menswear, and that informed a lot of the fabrication," he said. The result is a gorgeous assemblage of fluid, weightless layers and a sunset-inspired color palette. Diaphanous silk duster coats, crepe shirts, semi-sheer shirts and shorts, embroidered beaded camisoles, fluttering floral scarves as shirts or wraps ... and large paillettes that add shimmer. It feels like a collection you could live in all hot summer long.

https://www.driesvannoten.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--IM (Issey Miyake)

IM as it is now known is the continuation of the brand started by legendary Japanese designer Issey Miyake in 1970. Miyake (previously here), who died in 2022, was highly influential in clothing design and I honestly don't think we would have the likes of Rick Owens or Boris Bidjan Saberi or Damir Doma or Craig Green or even Haider Ackermann without him. The menswear division is now headed by a trio of designers--Sen Kawahara, Yuki Itakura and Nobutaka Kobayashi--who created a Spring Summer '27 show at Paris Fashion Week called "In Praise of Bamboo Shadows."

With references to a 1933 essay about Japanese aesthetics by Jun’Ichiro Tanizaki, the cultural and material significance of bamboo, and the ancient Japanese tale of Princess Kaguya who was discovered inside a bamboo stalk as a child but grows up to return to the night sky, this enchanting collection highlights the best of Miyake silhouettes and cuts. The first oversized coat is lovely, showing actual shadows of bamboo stalks on a white ground. And when not a literal presentation in the form of a hat or chest piece or shoes or the motif of woven bamboo, it showed up in the thread blend of garments, offering a silky texture and flowing appearance! The gradual shift to bamboo greens is so pleasing...

https://us.isseymiyake.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Songzio

Jay Songzio has called his creative perspective "oriental futurism" but he has also shown a penchant for mining silhouettes of times and centuries past. He has shown collections of garments that look as if they are based on Medieval and ancient Japanese armor. He blends east and west quite well. But for this Spring Summer '27 show at Paris Fashion Week, the armor has been softened, shaped into layers of ease with sheer materials. Quite the opposite of armor. But somehow he manages to retain an echo of the original purpose...

When the warrior takes off his battle gear, there is repose beneath. I love the way these garments drape, puddle, flow. The skirts in Looks 12 and 20 that zip open are magnificent. I don't think I have seen a loose trouser better cut than the ones in Looks 10, 15, and 16. Yet Songzio's classic Roman gladiator sandals remain (click a pic to ogle). And the browns, mustards, and greens are a beautiful counterpoint to his often black and white palette. Stunning.

https://en.songzio.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Shinyakozuka

Shinya Kozuka, who was the guest designer at Pitti Uomo this past winter, has been at it with his eponymously named menswear line since he graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2013. But this Spring Summer '27 collection entitled "watercolor path" marks his official debut on the Milan menswear schedule. And the collection has a curious impact ... like a haiku, it is streamlined and subtle but packed with poetic meaning.

Apparently, Kozuka often forgets his glasses at home and navigates his Tokyo neighborhood in a blur. From this experience came the idea of making the collection feel as if it exists in a haze. In his show notes, he said," There is something nice about being out of focus. Not everything needs to be perfectly clear. Not everything needs to be sharply defined. I think there is something important about repetition." The motif that flew into frame was birds in a beautiful spectrum of greens and blues. For the narrative, witness the design on a sweater in Look 18 that depicts a lone figure walking hrough a cityscape, casting a shadow onto a nearby flying bird.

The hand-made, hand-painted aspect of the collection is what makes it feel like a haiku ... something from the mind of an artist, from the hand of the maker. Looks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 13 are literally caked with paint. Many pieces are made from sheer material ... I love the jumpsuit in Look 6. And one tunic poignantly and simply announces, "homecoming." Like a haiku, we glean a bigger sense of  meaning from each of the lines and garments in this pensive collection.

https://shinyakozuka.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Giorgio Armani

It was a sad day last September when we learned of the death of a legend, Giorgio Armani. He had just celebrated his 91st birthday in July but had been ill in hospital for a bit. While it is not a surprise when someone of an advanced age dies (a dear friend of mine who checked out at 92 a couple of years ago asked me a few days before she died, "How much longer do I think I'm going to live?"), it is still a loss. But Sig. Armani lived a full life of creativity and left behind a legacy of true beauty.

It is impossible to exaggerate his achievements and contribution to culture, to design (not only of clothing, but of home furnishings and architecture), and to fashion history during his fifty year career. Along with names who changed silhouettes and shapes and ushered in new cuts and styles and materials, Armani takes his place in the pantheon. He deconstructed the men's suit in the 80s, turning it into something soft and sensual, something sexy and flowing, without altering the basic concept of what it was. He removed layers of felting inside suits, making them relaxed and able to behave like thin silk. Just take a look at the iconic clothing from the film "American Gigolo" and you will see what I mean. It was soft and casual with a sense of effortless power. This revolution rippled out into the industry and we see its waves even now: designers still grapple with ways to make suiting less stiff, to make clothing more luxe without being precious, and to make pieces with more innate ease without being sloppy. In short, to make clothes more Armani. But no one does Armani like Armani. Clean lined and impeccably tailored, Armani's sensibility is about luxe fabrics and the way a garment hangs and drapes on the body (of both men and women). But there is something else that I really respond to in each Armani collection and that is a vague sense, a shadow, an echo of historical fashion. The way a jacket or coat is cut or its stance, the inclusion of waistcoats, belted outerwear, loose cut and high waisted trousers...it all reminds me of...what, the 1920s and 30s? The 1880s and 1890s? The 1940s and 50s? Yes to all of it.

So this Spring Summer '27 collection shown at Milano Moda Uomo, is the second to exist without any direct input from the master himself. Armani's partner in business and in life, Leo Dell'Orco (the two had worked together for nearly forty-five years, and became romantic partners after the death of Armani's first love, Sergio Galeotti). He is certainly carrying on the DNA of the house with gorgeous, loose-fitting and flowing trousers but this collection seemed to be about the cuts of jackets and the addition of denim...and lots of it, or at least a lot in the Armani-verse. But this is a denim that appears to be the typical woven canvas structure but which actually looks and feels more like shantung silk ... of course. In his show notes, Dell-Orco said, "I envisioned a collection that is very Armani: fluid lines, this time closer to the body, and fabrics with a lived-in appearance—vibrant, sun-scorched, and full of character. I believe that in menswear it is essential to return to researching and innovating materials."

As for the jackets, we see a newcomer to Armani... a roomier version of a classic academic's jacket, longer and looser than the traditional version (seen in Looks 5, 11, 12, 15, 17). And the collection ended with a great section of eveningwear, stripped down to its essential silhouette, clean, unencumbered ... and featuring lapel pins of the zodiac symbols for Scorpio and Cancer, Dell-Orco's and Armani's signs respectively. A touching gesture of love across the gap...

https://www.armani.com/