BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Milano Moda Uomo

Milano Moda Uomo closed yesterday, and there were some pleasant Fall-Winter '24-'25 collections. Here are a few little details from collections I did not write about but I just couldn't let pass by...

Fendi did not have a theme and Silvia Venturini Fendi proclaimed no need for one--"A collection is a collection, period," she said emphatically--but one can see a certain English rural landscape dressing emerge. Among the protective outerwear were some great skirts.

Over at the Fondazione Prada, it was the set that caught my attention. The collection for FW '24-'25 from Mrs. Prada and Raf Simons apparently was a comment about how the business world creates an atmosphere that is prison-like and keeps people away from the natural world (well...yeah). Models first walked through a maze of spartan cubicles to emerge into the runway area which was created to float three feet over an actual meandering stream and grasses, on glass plates. Audience members watched from uncomfortable office chairs while mist hung in the air. What a feat of engineering to create a complete interior meadow encased in glass.

And finally, Dhruv Kapoor created a pretty cool chunky, lug soled shoe that was both a lace-up and a belted buckle!

https://www.fendi.com/
https://www.prada.com/
https://dhruvkapoor.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Milano Moda Uomo FW '23-'24

Milano Moda Uomo has wrapped up and the attention now turns to Paris. But before that, there were a few miscellaneous details at Milano Moda Uomo that caught my eye...

...Gucci showed skirts...and not the Thom Browne men's suiting skirt or the let's-pretend-this-kilt-is-a-skirt-so-we-can-still-pretend-to-be-masculine-and-not-wear-women's-clothes type of skirt. No, eff it. It's a long floor length skirt. And the cut is fantastic. Also in the collection: a 70s-80s retro flashback to leg warmers!

Here are some more long skirts at Etro. I must say that I miss Kean Etro (the son of the house's founder stepped down in 2022 and his last collection can be seen here)...aside from the skirts, this collection was fairly lackluster.

I am not sure how practical they are from a functional point of view (what if you have to kneel down to get a dropped iPhone?), but Alyx showed pants with spiked knees...

And finally, how awesome are these clever and unique metallic loafers with claws at the toe area from Charles Jeffrey? They make me giggle...

https://www.gucci.com/
https://www.etro.com/
https://www.alyxstudio.com/
https://charlesjeffreyloverboy.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Men In Skirts

BEAUTY: Clothing--Palomo Spain

Final stretch. Paris.

Alejandro Gómez Palomo's eponymous label Palomo Spain showed a jaw-dropping Spring Summer '20 collection at Paris Fashion Week that is sure to push buttons...like he has been doing for a few years now.

Palomo has become known as a designer who blurs the sartorial line between genders. And his feminizing of men's garments and of the male silhouette couldn't be timelier with both Xander Zhou and Per Götesson showing collections at London Fashion Week that featured only skirts (here) or the unraveling of masculine stereotypes (here). It is a common occurrence now for designers to include some kind of softer, more flowing item into a collection, whether it might be a wide cut culotte that looks like a skirt, an actual skirt, a caftan, a wrap, or even what might be identified as a dress.

But Palomo takes it to a logical conclusion and creates collections that look as if they were lifted directly off a runway for Women's Fashion Week. Inspiration for this collection that includes corsetry and dresses came not only from Palomo's native Spain (notice the crocheted fringe and the traditional lace-work panels) but from Pompeii. Palomo says he referenced "a new civilization of guys rising from the ashes of Pompeii. They are facing the future, and the future is ugly. It’s plastic, it’s polluted, it’s sabotaged—and it’s rave, it’s sex, and all that." But among the ruins is a sense of purity, of gentleness, of a lyric beauty. Not every man is going to want to wear Palomo's creations, and to more than a few it will make no sense (and that is okay, change does not come all at once), but I am supremely glad he is creating what he is and manifesting a new space for expression and thought. That in itself is power. Saleability is secondary.

https://www.palomospain.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Yohji Yamamoto

Paris Fashion Week got underway yesterday and the first offerings so far have been marvelous.

Yohji Yamamoto, long a purveyor of a certain kind of Japanese deconstruction, presented a very strong collection in a show that was wobbly, eccentric, and zany. Models wore fake beards and mustaches, while saluting each other or in some cases, giving each other guff. The clothing, the designer says, was inspired by German portrait photographer August Sander, whose 20s and 30s photos clearly shaped the feeling of the pieces on the runway. Instead of trying to recreate a time period, Yamamoto used the beards and mustaches to highlight the serio-comic approach to his silhouette which included Yamamoto staples like wide cut trousers, and kilts and skirts, this time with fur inserts for winter. Unique touches are trousers under trousers, visible because the top trouser cuff is rolled to reveal the trouser underneath, and worker/bartender aprons (on Benjamin Dukhan sporting his own beard of course, and a new bleached blond razor cut angular bob!). But these flights of fancy were tempered by classic double breasted jackets, Homburgs and flat newsboy caps. All in all, a meaty collection full of texture, both literally and figuratively, with a lot to ponder and digest...

http://www.yohjiyamamoto.co.jp/
Photos via http://www.style.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Rick Owens

This summer, we have had Pitti Uomo in Firenze, Milano Moda Uomo, and now we have just cycled through Paris Fashion Week for men. While it's not really a whole week (more like four days), a lot gets crammed into the schedule. And there were some amazing things being shown this year for Spring/ Summer 2012.

Regular readers know that I do not follow "fashion" as in "What does Calvin Klein's sportswear look like this season?" I follow fashion the way some people delve into the art world. I think of "fashion" as "costume"--as a way to convey an idea or a concept. I appreciate what some designers do the same way one appreciates what an avant garde sculptor or painter or performance artist does. And in a way, these designers are performance artists. For me, it is not about what is hanging on racks in stores, but what these artists are creating and the ideas and concepts they are working with as an influence on their marvelous creativity. It is moving sculpture. It is theater. Fashion and clothing at this level serves as a kind of visual shorthand. A piece of clothing in the hands of a designer can evoke a place, a region, a country, a specific time or an entire era, a work of art such as a novel or film or painting, a class of people, even a social, financial, or spiritual element... and the combination of such pieces of clothing, as well as their harmony or contrast, can tell a fascinating story.

On that note, American designer Rick Owens showed a collection that was not groundbreaking, but completely true to his oeuvre. Owens' clothes have always felt very science-fiction-y to me, and in particular they recall the 1984 version of "Dune" directed by David Lynch. I have never heard a fashion journalist make this connection before, but I imagine that Owens saw "Dune" lo those years ago and was either so inspired or traumatized by it, he has been trying to work it out ever since. To me, it seems obvious. Season after season, I have seen similar silhouettes and ideas that had to have come from Bob Ringwood, the brilliant costume designer for "Dune." Last year, Owens delivered a collection that looked exactly like saint Alia of the Knife (for those who have not seen Lynch's "Dune," please do), complete with Bene Gesserit nun head coverings!

This season we see Owens' models in what appear to be a cross between Bene Gesserit robes and Guild Navigator tunics. It is a shockingly otherworldly look which was helped tremendously by the setting for the runway show. In a cavernous space, the models emerged from a long groove in a glowing monolith while a hypnotizing electronic beat pulsed and grew.

The robes and tunics may have an ecclesiastical look to them, but they boil down to skirts and dresses for men. Of course the question is, will such pieces sell? Will men actually buy and wear long dresses or skirts? Who gives a sh*t. This is exquisite performance art, people.

Take a look at the video from Style.com, and then go to Owens' website (link at bottom) to see a widescreen presentation of the complete show!

http://www.rickowens.eu/