BEAUTY: Clothing--Thom Browne

Thom Browne's SS '21 co-ed--perhaps even genderless--collection is "presented" on the moon in 2132...

https://www.thombrowne.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Maison Margiela Co-Ed Collection Spring-Summer 2021 | S.W.A.L.K. II

This incredible film explores in-depth the creation of Maison Martin Margiela's co-ed collection for Spring-Summer 2021 called Sealed With A Loving Kiss. It is a treat to see Creative Director John Galliano at work on every aspect of the collection including the tango theme of the presentation. It is also a treat to see pieces being made, and to peek into the concept of "recicla," the recycle and upcycle approach the house has adopted. Galliano and team discover vintage pieces which they disassemble and use to create new, hybrid creations.

https://www.maisonmargiela.com/us

BEAUTY: Clothing--Rick Owens

Rick Owens, Women's Spring Summer 2021. PHLEGETHON. Fabulous.

I SPEND MY SUMMERS ON VENICE’S LIDO, THE SITE OF THOMAS MANN’S NOVELLA DEATH IN VENICE. THE MAIN CHARACTER, A WRITER ASCETICALLY DEVOTED TO HIS CRAFT, DEVELOPS AN OBSESSION WITH A YOUTH AND ENDS UP DYING ON THE BEACH FROM CHOLERA DURING AN EPIDEMIC WITH DESPERATELY AGE-DEFYING HAIR DYE RUNNING DOWN HIS FACE IN THE HOT SUN. 

THE WORD ‘QUARANTINE’ ORIGINATED FROM THIS AREA’S MEDIEVAL RESPONSE TO THE BUBONIC PLAGUE. 

THIS WOMEN’S RUNWAY SHOW IS PRESENTED IN THE PIAZZA IN FRONT OF THE LIDO CASINO — A MONUMENTAL 1930S RATIONALIST PALAZZO THAT I WALK BY AND WORSHIP EVERY DAY ON MY WAY TO THE BEACH. DOING A DIGITAL SHOW WITHOUT AN AUDIENCE HERE, WITH MY INTIMATE ITALIAN DESIGN ROOM CREW FROM OUR FACTORY 2 HOURS AWAY, FEELS COZY AND TRUTHFUL AND SPECTACULAR ALL AT ONCE 

MY LAST FALL RUNWAY SHOULDER-FREAK-OUT WASN’T ABOUT POWER, IT WAS ABOUT DEFIANCE — DEFIANCE IN THE FACE OF THREAT. BLACK GRAIN DE POUDRE TAILORING IS OVERSIZED WITH SLEEVES RIPPED OFF OF HULKING SHOULDERS... STRAPS ALLOW THE WEARER TO STRIP JKTS OFF AND CINCH AROUND WAISTS AS A BEACH BUSTLE... AND SATIN RIB WAISTED BOMBERS HAVE SHOULDERS THAT ARE AN EXAGGERATED MIDDLE FINGER TO DOOM. 

I JUST MIGHT BE LEANING INTO A TASTE FOR THE LURID THAT AN UNDERCURRENT OF THREAT AND DREAD CAN INSPIRE. BUBBLEGUM PINK AND ALARM RED THIGH HIGH BOOTS AND LEATHER MICRO- SHORT CUTOFFS ADD A GARISH NOTE, BUT THESE MICRO-SHORTS CAN BE TRANSFORMED INTO WAIST DEFINING BELTS WITH HANDY POCKETS THAT CAN BE WORN OVER SIMPLE JERSEY SHIFTS. 

ALSO MORE CIVILIZED ARE ARCHITECTURAL COTTON POPLIN TUNICS AND ROBES WITH SCULPTED CAPES AND MANTLES IN BONDED WOOLS AND COTTON POPLIN. CONFECTIONS IN SILK CHIFFON WITH STRICT LINES OF TULLE GEO-RUFFLES SPRINKLED WITH TRAILING GAZAR RIBBONS ADD A GRIM GAIETY. 

MOST OF THE LEATHERS USED IN THIS COLLECTION ARE DOUBLE-FACED WITH MINIMAL, UNLINED CONSTRUCTION, INCLUDING A 0.8MM THICK NEAPOLITAN-PRODUCED JUICY DOUBLE-FACED LEATHER WE CALL DOUBLE BUTTER. 

WE DID A NEAPOLITAN GELATO DÉGRADÉ STRIPE PRINT ON CHIFFON AND CRÊPE, EXTENDING IT TO KNITS. THESE KNITS DOUBLE UP, PEEL UP AND DOWN LIKE A BANANA, COVERING OR EXPOSING AT WILL. 

A GROUP OF FISHNET TANK DRESSES AND HOODIES HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED FROM THE MASKS USED IN FW12 ‘MOUNTAIN’. 

JKTS AND SHORTS ARE PRESENTED IN STRETCH DENIM SURFACED WITH PAILLETTES CUSTOM MADE FOR US FROM RECYCLED PLASTIC. 

THIS WOMEN’S SPRING COLLECTION, AS ALWAYS, SHARES THE SAME TITLE AS THE MEN’S — ‘PHLEGETHON’, ONE OF THE RIVERS IN THE INFERNO DESCRIBED IN DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY, NOT QUITE THE CENTER OF HELL BUT ON THE WAY THERE. 

I USED A SOUNDTRACK OF DONNA SUMMER’S ‘I FEEL LOVE’ REMIXED FOR ME 10 YEARS AGO BY JEFF JUDD, MY LONGTIME MUSIC COLLABORATOR. THIS SONG HAS ALWAYS BEEN A REASSURING AND STABILIZING ANTHEM FOR ME BUT HERE IT GETS AS DARK AND DELIRIOUS AS FALLING INTO A K-HOLE, FITTING THIS MOMENT PERFECTLY. COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS DID NOT ALLOW ME TO POST IT ON YOUTUBE SO I HAD TO POST A SUBSTITUTE VERSION. BUT DONNA WENT HARD FOR THE LIVE SHOW AT THE LIDO...

https://www.rickowens.eu/en/US

BEAUTY: Clothing--Han Kjøbenhavn

Han Kjøbenhavn was started in 2008 as an eyewear brand by designer Jannik Wikkelsø Davidsen and soon expanded into clothing for men and women. The brand has not been on my radar before now, and I am entranced by what I see...

A futuristic statement, or perhaps a concept of life from another planet or a parallel universe, Davidsen twists and enhances the human form into something transhuman. Those shapes are just amazing. I love the shoulders but I really love the enormous, wide-legged wader boots in both a tall and ankle boot form! Wowsa!

And I love the highly atmospheric, chilling film showing these transhumans/aliens hiding in a subterranean world, for what I perceive as their safety. One of them says, "Be kind to my siblings--as we dare to encounter you."

https://hankjobenhavn.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Andrea Pompilio

For his Spring Summer 2021 collection for virtual Milano Moda Uomo, Andrea Pompilio presented a video that did not feature any garments...indeed it is billed as "NOT A FASHION MOVIE BY GIULIA ACHENZA." Instead, it plays like a collaged, abstract manifesto on how to survive the rest of 2020 and hopefully into 2021. Pompilio has always been playfully subversive but desperate times call for desperate measures.

"When new sceneries
open, a shock over the shock is
needed to come out and born again.
Renewed, Regenerated, Awakened
from constraints, we take ourselves
back to life.
The research of our bodies and souls
begins"

https://andreapompilio.it/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Milano Moda Uomo

Well, that was interesting. London, Paris, and Milan Fashion Weeks in a digital, virtual format (save for Etro here and Dolce and Gabbana here). The new format afforded some designers an opportunity to include more in their collections, and swing wider to include more in their respective orbits as it were.

Here are a few little details I noticed from the Spring Summer 2021 collections and presentations that are worth noting:

For his brand JieDa, Japanese designer Hiroyuki Fujita showed an interesting shirt with a very wide placket that hides--or not--a necktie. It all feels a little Zoot Suit-y and a little Western...

The Milanese brand Edithmarcel, founded in 2015 by Gianluca Ferracin and Andrea Masato, respectively from the world of Fashion Design and Architecture, showed a playful collection that relied on imagery that echoes the work of 80s artist and illustrator Patrick Nagel (famous for the cover of the Duran Duran album "Rio"). Take a look and see if you agree that, if used without consultation, Nagel's estate might need some compensation...

http://jieda.jp/
https://edithmarcel.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Ferragamo

The house of Ferragamo created a PRE-Spring Summer 2021 collection for virtual Milano Moda Uomo...and while it is a men's and women's collection (which I generally do not show) and while there is no lookbook, and while the accompanying video doesn't really show off the clothing until the very end, I do want to share it because it is a surprisingly moving, inspiring, and impressive mini-history of the brand and what they represent. Really quite lovely. Only 3 minutes and change. Take a look.

And if you are so inclined, you can take a great virtual tour of the Museo Ferragamo located in the Palazzo Spini Feroni at the Piazza di Santa Trinita in Florence. It features a collection of Ferragamo shoes and clothing but also some interesting pieces of art. Click on the photo or the link below it, then follow the arrows to discover the interior of the museum.

https://www.ferragamo.com/museo/en/usa/virtual-tour

https://www.ferragamo.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Dolce and Gabbana

Well, virtual Milano Moda Uomo is turning out to be a cross between the underwhelming virtual London Fashion Week and the successful virtual Paris Fashion Week. And some of it has been not so virtual:

Etro may have beat them to a physical show (see it here), but as usual, Dolce and Gabbana outdoes everyone with their sheer number of looks (this one clocks in at 105!). And as usual, D and G always look to their own Italy and Italian history for inspiration.

For their Spring Summer '21 collection at Milano Moda Uomo, they looked to the storied Parco dei Principi Hotel overlooking the Gulf of Naples. Originally the site of the Villa Poggio Siracusa built in 1792 by Paul Leopold of Bourbon, Count of Syracuse, it now features a modernist masterpiece by Italian architect Gio Ponti. Opened in 1962, the hotel features an exclusive blue and white color scheme with thirty different blue and white Majolica floor tile designs in both the public spaces and the guest rooms and suites! These tile designs show up on all garments in this collection, and the geometry and modernism serve as a magnificent foil for traditional Classical and Neo-Classical imagery like ruins with Ionic columns, marble statuary of antiquity, and the capitals of Corinthian columns, also in blues and white, naturally.

A Dolce and Gabbana collection is usually a sumptuous affair and I am not sure if it was planned in advance of COVID, but this outdoors-focused seaside collection is, by contrast, so easy, breezy, casual, and wearable...there was even a beautiful sarong for wrapping poolside/post-swim (I have several sarongs I always take with me when I visit Maui, and I would love this one!). And the suiting was extremely causal too...sheer jacket and pants anyone? Yes please.

And speaking of outdoors, a word must be said about the venue, specifically chosen post-virus quarantine. Held at the Humanitas University, the educational arm of the privately funded--but public-treating--medical group for which Dolce and Gabbana have been funding medical scholarships since 2019, the show ended with an uplifting speech by Lorenzo Moretto, immunologist and past president of the European Federation of Immunological Societies.

Take a look at some rooms and a terrace at the Parco dei Principi featuring these wonderful Ponti Majolica floor tiles...

And D and G also produced a very special jacket based on the ceramic "pebble"-encrusted lobby and bar at the Parco dei Prinicpi...

https://us.dolcegabbana.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Magliano

For Milano Moda Uomo virtual, Magliano created a video with a warped soundtrack and an absolutely hilarious and surreal narration (a hybrid of Fellini's Catholicism and David Lynch's poetry) about the clothing and models in this Spring Summer 2021 collection, featuring some fascinating pieces in a kind of neon/hippie/thrift store vibe (a jacket with a nylon lining to display a dollar bill and a porn photo!).

https://www.magliano.website/

BEAUTY: Clothing--KidSuper

Alrighty then, Paris Fashion Week has wrapped and we move on to Milano Moda Uomo...but let's look at a last few fun moments from France.

Colm Dillane's KidSuper brand is a collective--while he is the Creative Director, he collaborates on not only his clothing line, but also his many other ventures: he paints and does art shows, records music, and makes music videos. So this video for his Springs Summer '21 collection for virtual Paris Fashion Week is pretty kicky, not only because this is his debut collection accepted under The Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode--during a global pandemic no less--but also because the video is a delightful stop motion animated runway show with famous people in the audience as well as on the runway (keep an eye out for the Obamas, Picasso, Salvador Dali, Jackie Chan, Muhammad Ali, Stephen Hawking, Freddie Mercury, and of course Anna Wintour!). And the patchwork, hand painted pieces, once they are human-sized, will be wild and fun.

https://kidsuper.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Loewe

J. W. Anderson presented his Spring Summer 2021 collection in what he called a "Show In A Box," seen here...the box includes pieces of fabrics featured in the collection along with inspirational cards and pressed flowers, and of course many different sized images of the garments themselves. And since Anderson is also the current Creative Director of venerable Spanish brand Loewe (founded in 1846!), he curated a "Show In A Box" for this SS '21 collection as well. I love the knitwear aspect in Anderson's work, and of course the accent on the idea of artisans and handcrafted elements is earnest and engaging. It is a lovely, moving idea that feels nourishing for this time. Watch the video and look at that gorgeous shibori shirt.

https://www.loewe.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Rick Owens

The inimitable Rick Owens showed not one but two collections, side by side, in a very intimate presentation. The first is for "Performa," the fall 2020 collection he showed in January but whose distribution had since been shut down due to COVID. The next is for a new collection titled "Phlegethon," after the river of molten fire that Dante said swept the agonized damned through the seventh circle. Both collections are shown on Rick's friend/muse Tyrone Dylan Susman. It's just the two of them in the Owens studio, trying looks on...

https://www.rickowens.eu/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Yohji Yamamoto

I can never resist a Yohji Yamamoto collection. A bit English Edwardian gentleman, a bit punk ruffian, a bit Japanese workwear. This great SS '21 collection video for virtual Paris Fashion Week is full of some marvelous details like eyeball buttons (like something Dali would have created!), lacing, and superb trench coats featuring labels/silk screened images and loose threads.

https://theshopyohjiyamamoto.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--EGONlab.

EGONlab., the design duo consisting of life and business partners Florentin Glémarec and Kévin Nompeix, showed a SS '21 collection at virtual Paris Fashion Week that featured some awesome lace ups boots as well as lace up garments. And some A shirts with cut outs à la Rick Owens. Never a bad thing.

EGONlab.

"WE SEE OURSELVES AS VISUAL ARTISTS. EACH COLLECTION WANTS TO PRESERVE THE AESTHETICS THAT A WORK OF ART MUST PROVOKE."

EGONLAB IS A FRENCH EMERGING BRAND WHOSE VISUAL EYE IS DEEPLY INSPIRED BY ARTISTIC MOVEMENTS AND WHICH HAVE GREATLY INFLUENCED OUR MODERN SOCIETY.

EACH COLLECTION WILL SHOWCASE AN ARTISTIC RE-INTERPRETATION OF THESE REVOLUTIONS AND THE RIPPLE EFFECTS FOLLOWING THEIR FRUITION.

MERGING FASHION, MUSIC, MOTION DESIGN, AND MIXED MEDIA ART -EGONLAB IS A ONE OF A KIND BRAND AND A MOVEMENT IN ITSELF, ONE WHO OFFERS A FULLY IMMERSIVE AND COMPLETE UNIQUE EXPERIENCE TO ITS CONSUMERS.

https://egonlab.fr/