BEAUTY: Clothing--Robert Wun

Wow.

This.
This is art.

Designer Robert Wun showed his Fall Winter '25-'26 collection last week. I always say couture at this level is wearable art but in this case it literally is. Male and female models wore sculpted arms as additional accessories. The bloody hand prints, the paint spatters, the mold blooms, and the scorch marks, all rendered in sequins and beads are stunning. The sculpted nature of some of the silhouettes showed that they change depending on which angle one sees it. The show unfolded like a surreal hallucination, riddled with dream logic. He called the show "Becoming" and described the collection as a journey into "the depths of human desire and imagination." Indeed, he closed the show with a wedding gown, a traditional move harking back to the golden age of couture when Christian Dior started the practice...but this was no traditional gown. The veil was held up by a disturbing little ghost perched atop the head. When the bride removed her hands from her waist, she revealed their imprint into the peplum of her top. A symbol. A message. An omen. 

https://www.robertwun.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Marni

Francesco Risso has been Creative Director of Marni since 2016 and he has thoroughly dedicated his work to a certain quirky, freewheeling, artistic expression that makes one give pause. So for this Fall Winter  '25-'26 collection shown at Marni headquarters, he incorporated imagery from his collaboration with the Nigerian artists Olaolu Slawn and Soldier Boyfriend. What started as talk over aperitifs in London evolved into The Pink Sun, a month-long residency where the three artists shared a studio, riffing on each other's works, inspiring and encouraging. "It was a moment of such liberation and freedom, we were like a pack of happy wolves. We really dared to dream." The name of the collection is The Pink Sun, and I am showing men's looks here but take a look at the video; the womenswear is quite special too.

Indeed, there is a wolf motif from their collaboration that shows up on a suit. The playfulness of gigantic fur elements (more wolfy-ness) adds a skewed, surreal touch. But there is something else deeper in this eccentric, visceral presentation, with live music by Dev Hynes (Blood Orange, previously here),... and it plays right into my mood and thinking about the state of not only my own country in peril but the world in general. Like the Dadaists who met World War I with a spiritual defiance ("I will see your insanity and raise you..."), these days I am feeling that I need to be more of who I am and what I value and love. I know many might say, well, this Marni collection is just some clothes,... but no, it is more than that. It is a statement. A bold statement. A vital statement. It is saying, "You, right-wing, oppressive elements of the world, can try to destroy a lot of what the world has built, but you can't take away my spirit, my essence. You can't take away what I love and value. Art and poetry will die only with the last human being. So I will continue to be myself with THE VOLLUME TURNED UP. So what are you going to do? Are you going to come for me, round me up, put me in a camp? Do it. I'll make it easy for you to find me...I'll be the one wearing a yellow sweater with a huge fur collar. And by the way...f**k you."

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
--Albert Camus

Francesco Risso with Olaolu Slawn and Soldier Boyfriend

https://www.marni.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Paolo Carzana

London Fashion Week is wrapping up and I am so pleased to end on this high note:

Welsh designer Paolo Carzana is still a little new to the industry but has already amassed followers as well as some clout: he is a recipient of the British Fashion Council NewGen award and has BFC support money to put on shows, and is also an artist in residence at the Sarabande Foundation, the arts foundation supported at the bequest of Lee Alexander McQueen.

His vision is fairly singular, much like McQueen. While promoting his Fall Winter '23 collection entitled "Queer Symphony," he said, "It’s mainly related to this idea that everything I was ashamed of as a kid is now my strength. Up until I was 17, I would literally pray every night to wake up straight, and pray to be normal. And every single day, I was bullied in school, when I didn’t even know who I was."

It is a shared story among many of us in the gay community, one I have heard many times...surviving emotional, psychological, and often physical abuse and attacks to emerge on the other side, despite or probably because of it all, with a hunger and drive to create something beautiful, to express a force that could not be taken from us. I can attest to the truth of this from my own personal experience. So I feel great tenderness toward and interest in the creations of Paolo Carzana.

His sartorial vernacular is made of delicate fabrics tied and stitched together that seem like creations from some dream world, as if those wearing his garments should be lounging around on marble terraces in bright Pre-Raphaelite splendor, or in a lush production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The cuts feel like they are memories of historical clothing, like tattered remnants of a far-away homeland after a shipwreck, and his beautiful sheer, ripped, ruched tops and trousers seem like they belong on wood sprites, elves, fairies. There is a hushed beauty to the silhouettes and construction of the garments that casts a spell. The cherry on the cake of his brand is his earnest commitment to sustainability. He uses deadstock, antique, or recycled fabric, and he uses plant dyes and spices to color his fabrics, including black walnut, Himalayan rhubarb, wild cherry bark, turmeric, tea, orange spice, hibiscus, and apple wood

So for this FW '25-'26 collection at London Fashion Week, entitled "DRAGONS UNWINGED AT THE BUTCHERS BLOCK," he showed his dreamy creations in a small pub called The Holy Tavern that could only hold forty people inside while a dozen more sat on bar stools in light rain on the pavement, and a legion of fans inside an adjacent narrow Victorian passage named St John’s Path. The clothing is sublime but the message is dire. Carzana explained, "I wanted to show where we are today--in purgatory. We live in dark times… Because humanity is destroying our planet. And also the way that LGBT rights are being taken away from us, so we cannot be ourselves." The title itself: dragons who are normally fierce creatures, flying about free, have had their wings removed...and they are on the butcher block, to be mutilated and killed. And how could such an image relate to what is going on in the world...hmmm, think think...

https://www.paolocarzana.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Toga

Yasuko Furuta's brand Toga was not on my radar until now. But that's understandable since she has not really shown much since the pandemic...but for this London Fashion Week, she created a rather masterful Fall Winter '25-'26 collection that posed the question: is formalwear even relevant anymore? Of course my personal answer is yes (come on, make an effort), but her answer is a little less definitive. She took the idea of men's suiting and stretched it a bit...using some wonky proportions. I really love the enlarged collars that sort of fold over each other, with nowhere else to go. Backward blazers are topped with waves of thin wool. And the casually draped bow tie is a conscious homage to William Eggleston, the father of modern color photography as an art form. He often wore an untied bow tie around his neck more like a scarf than a tie. She managed to close the show with a black caftan or toga (it's right in the name) as a way to show that formal and casual can mix. So ultimately, her answer to the original question is...it can be if you want it to be.

https://int.toga.jp/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Denzil Patrick

For London Fashion Week, Denzil Patrick designer Daniel Gayle showed a collection only for the second time in his own hometown. Launched three years ago by Gayle along with his husband James Bosley who is also Artistic Director of the brand, Denzil Patrick has carved out a place in the industry. The pair like to play with British elements of fashion (see their British Navy-inspired SS '25 collection here), but also to deconstruct and then reassemble pieces of traditional masculine garments.

So for this Fall-Winter '25-'26 collection, they looked to the world of motocross through a Medieval lens, and the resulting Romantic, swashbuckling presentation ended up looking like a modern staging of Romeo and Juliet, with pieces that evoked padded and slashed Elizabethan jackets. Breastplates and aiguillettes (ornamental braided cord often found on military uniforms) helped this look along. And the motocross reference blended in well too: the pattern of the traditional checkered flag from the racing world felt like it was a leftover from Tudor England--the collection was entitled "Everyday Majesty" after all!

https://www.denzilpatrick.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Central Saint Martins MA Graduate Show

The fashion school of London's Central Saint Martins has produced some astonishingly great talents, including Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Riccardo Tisci, Stella McCartney, Craig Green, Katharine Hamnett, Charles Jeffrey, Zac Posen, and Gareth Pugh. And for London Fashion Week, the MA graduates showed some wonderful, fresh designs for their Fall Winter '25-'26 graduate collections.

A trio of Asian designers stood out for me...

Jake Zhang created a collection based on athleticwear but added odd geometric shapes and foam padding of unknown purpose, making these vaguely unsettling pieces look at once familiar and alien. They seemed like something from a Matthew Barney film...

Then Liu Xueyang showed a simple collection but with such a sense of ease and lyricism, it recalls the original way humans used fabric...as sweeping wraps and covers. Such a primal, elemental way for a wearer to interact with their garment, as not just a garment but as comfort and shelter. It only helps that Xueyang produced it all in what appears to be a soft, supple jersey knit. *sigh* Just lovely.

And finally, Zihan Miracle Liu sent out a collection clearly inspired by his Chinese cultural background, but once again, we see a designer working with fabric in an elemental way, letting it drape, fold, collect, and flow. I particularly love the mono printed images that elevate these pieces into wearable works of art.

https://jakezhang.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/xueyang.l/
https://www.instagram.com/Zihanliuzihan/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Thom Browne

Thom Browne showed a marvelous collection at New York Fashion Week. It was a co-ed show but I featuring the men's looks below. I love the bird motif but especially love the cozy, autumnal color palette Browne used. And here are the notes from the show to explain:

"surrounded by 2,000 origami paper birds, a pair of ornithologists cloaked in hooded parkas enter wearing double-faced wool iterations of the thom browne uniform. semi-sheer argyle stockings peek from over-the-knee suede waders as they sit at their perch, a white folded desk and chairs, ready to observe what’s to come.

otherworldly visitors emerge in heritage tweeds. silhouettes descend from strong shoulders. signature suiting broadens and argyle cardigans shrink. birds of pure fantasy rendered in satin stitch and gold bullion embroidery come to life on herringbone, glen plaid, houndstooth, and windowpane checks. not a single hemline repeated. each garment distinct from the other.

hallmarks of traditional menswear tailoring reach from the outside in. suede elbow patches and contrast collars complement self-covered buttons, belts, and armbands. a tweed football pinnie and chocolate brown suede varsity jacket, emblazoned with “65” in reference to thom’s birth year, pay homage to collegiate classics. pops of yellow evoke thom’s high school mascot, the canary. elsewhere, sequin, boucle yarn, silk ribbons, and featherlike thread converge in red, white, blue, and silver tweeds.

a dynamic sense of movement reappears in tweed and silk duchess satin dresses. side swept silhouettes contour the body while inverted box pleats reveal repp stripe silk with every move. in contrast, silk trompe l’oeil dresses lie flat on off-the-shoulder origami-inspired looks backed by unfinished petticoats. in the end, a rare bird emerges in a gold bullion embroidered grey suit jacket and sweeping ball skirt draped with 40 meters of heritage tweed.

from beloved hector to the iconic mr. and mrs. thom luggage bags to pumps, tuxedo slippers, and longwings of all heights, accessories and footwear are fully realized in brogued suede with a two-tone spectator color scheme—some veiled by argyle stockings and others punctuated by silk pom-poms and swarovski crystals."

https://www.thombrowne.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Saint Laurent

Anthony Vaccarello, creative director at Saint Laurent (YSL) decided to show his Fall-Winter '25-'26 men' collection off the usual Paris Fashion Week schedule (and oddly, smack dab in the middle of women's fashion week, but whatever). He staged the show at the Bourse de Commerce, an incredible circular structure in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, one of his favorite spots for shows (see previous YSL shows here). With inspiration for past collections coming from touchstones of gay culture like French author Jean Genet and the Rainer Werner Fassbinder film adaptation of Genet's novel "Querelle," Vaccarello once again looks to gay culture. This time, he imagined a fictitious meeting between Yves and subversive photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. While there is no recorded proof, it is at least possible that the two met at some point: Mapplethorpe photographed a 1983 catalog for YSL.

But it is this juxtaposition, this mash-up if you will, of YSL's high fashion and Mapplethorpe's unapologetic leather fetish wear (here) that creates the tension in this collection. Men wear blazers of boxy, 80s proportions with wide shoulders (leather trench coats and bomber jackets also make an appearance) but with black leather wader boots that come up nearly to the femoral artery! Vaccarello says it's a look "where you’re respectable on the top, but dirty on the way down." The collection ended with an evening look: double breasted tux jacket, satin lapels, but with the obligatory waders. It doesn't get more mashy-uppy than that!

https://www.ysl.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Paris Fashion Week

Paris Fashion Week showcasing collections for the '25'-26 Fall and Winter season wrapped and here are a few details that caught my attention:

Gloriously wide trousers at Dior Homme.

Chitose Abe's brand Sacai showed a collection that was inspired by children's author Maurice Sendak's classic book "Where The Wild Things Are." There were only a few pieces that spoke directly (an image of one of the Wild Things) or even indirectly (jackets with wooly fur like a Wild Thing) to Sendak's work...the rest was a collaboration with Ugg and Carhartt. Maurice was a friend of mine and I think he would have found this collection very...um...amusing (with a hairy eyebrow).

Fursac creative director Gauthier Borsarello looked back to a Paris of the 70s and 80s and came up with a small detail that made my heart sing: buttons, the kind that featured rock bands or pithy sayings from the 80s adorning sweaters like epaulets, and peeking out from lapels. I still have my huge collection of such buttons from the 80s (Duran Duran, Adam Ant, Nina Hagen, "Rude Boy," BowWowWow, David Bowie, Prince, Laurie Anderson, etc.) and they make an appearance on a denim jacket every now and then.

Feng Chen Wang showed some pretty cool 3D printed shoes in the shape of a traditional Chinese dragon.

And kudos to Bluemarble for using mature models.

https://www.dior.com/

https://www.sacai.jp/
https://fr.fursac.com/
https://fengchenwang.com/
https://bluemarbleparis.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Wooyoungmi

Youngmi Woo said she was thinking of a return to elegance both externally as well as internally when she created her Wooyoungmi FW '25-'26 collection shown at Paris Fashion Week. She thinks the world has lost its, how I interpret her remarks, state of individual self-respect. And I must agree with her. To live a life of self-respect, of elegance, means to slow down, and to value oneself enough to live with grace and gentility.

As I say at the beginning of every fashion season, I look forward to seeing how designers take an inspiration, an idea--sometimes an abstract or complex idea--and manifest it within their medium. Like any artist. And here, this state of elegance manifested itself in beautifully tailored suiting (look at those nipped waists) adorned with flowers as a brooch, but in the same suiting material (or leather!). An elegant statement, indeed. Florals and botanicals floated through the rest of the collection. But in the grand scheme of things, the clothing is unimportant... it is the inner state of wanting to make life--yours and the world around you--as good as it can be that will heal the world.

https://en.wooyoungmi.com/