July 02, 2019

YUIMA NAKAZATO COUTURE FW19-20 SHOW PACKAGE

July 02, 2019/ Ashlee Frederick

Yuima Nakazato has been striving to realize a future vision for humanity in which "Eventually, each and every garment will be unique and different." His quest for the pursuit of this radical idea, this democratization of haute couture, began in 2016. Upon rendezvous with Spiber and THE EUGENE studio, the journey begins anew.

Fashion, science and art, a trio of disparate elements that speak to a shared spirit, to a belief in the potential of realizing a future full of hope. The fusion of these three domains by Yuima Nakazato, Spiber, and THE EUGENE Studio leads to a journey expanded in scope and rife with possibilities.

FASHIONADO

June 26, 2019

Dior SS20 Is Exquisitely Clean Tailoring and Collaborative RIMOWA Cases

June 26, 2019/ Ashlee Frederick

Dior‘s impressive ascension under Kim Jones’s direction continues with the luxury house’s Spring/Summer 2020 collection. Rife with collaborations that notably include artist Daniel Arsham and RIMOWA, the menswear offering is stunningly clean, blending streetwear-friendly branding with mature tailored garments.

Like the Hajime Sorayama-centric Pre-Fall 2019 offering, this collection emphasizes clean lines and a timeless color palette to emphasize the covetable accessories, Matthew M. Williams-designed hardware and Arsham-inspired wares. The latter comes by way of unfettered trench coats and pale slacks, a nod to the artist’s personal uniform, while Arsham’s Future Relic series inspires the collection’s desaturated, earthy palette and a faux-cracked T-shirt.

Elongated belts, boxy work shirts and Oblique logo undershirts crop up in the collection, bolstering the louche suiting with youthful appeal. Elsewhere, safari caps and wide scarves shield the wearer from the sun, while skin-tight knitwear and sheer short-sleeved shirts lend primary color pops to the proceedings. Illustrative floral separates, buttery leather jackets and draping scarf-like attachments reinforce the sumptuousness attitude that Dior trades on.

Luxe textiles inform the offering’s crocodile leather jumpsuits and flowing silk shirts, while double-breasted jackets and carrot-cut trousers grant the range an effortlessly sophisticated attitude. Like the relaxed suiting, a faded newspaper print calls to the brand’s heritage, finding its way onto shirts, socks, B23 sneakers and a series of collaborative RIMOWA bags, the first union between the luggage label and Dior. To further distinguish the cases, each boasts a bespoking anodizing process that sees vibrant pigments blended directly in the aluminum shell; this embeds unique, vibrant colors into each item, permanently.

The fellow LVMH-controlled brand contributes a variety of thematic shoulderbags, clutches and full-sized luggage, a natural marriage of each labels’ sleek aesthetics. Yoon‘s head-turning jewelry continues to evolve each season, with chunky “DIOR” rings, necklaces and earrings all offered in a wide array of colors and makeups. Glossy eyewear, wallets and backpacks round out the expansive accessories offering, along with an Arsham-approved deconstructed cap, several new iterations of Dior’s Saddle bag and a wide array of running shoes and boots.

Source: HYPEBEAST

FASHIONADO

June 20, 2019

Off-White Spring 2020 Menswear

June 20, 2019/ Ashlee Frederick

The opening look and most of the closing, women’s included, at this Off-White show were made in collaboration with the New York artist Futura—aka Lenny McGurr. His vivid spray strokes and sleekly alien Pointman figure were incorporated as print or jacquard into suiting, soft trenches, cycling vests, denim, a blanket, and evening dresses. As Virgil Abloh sketched it in his long sentences backstage: “In his lifetime, and in the culture that we come from, which is a segment of hip-hop and graffiti, [his work] started out being seen as a form of vandalism, not art. . . . But as well as painting on the side of subway trains, he was part of the scene and showed with Basquiat and Keith Haring. . . . . He was on what was once thought of as the fringe. . . . but now, through time, we can see that the beauty of Basquiat is also the beauty of Lenny, Futura.”

That transition from the counterculture—the fringe—to become both the subject of establishment acclaim and an agent of change within the establishment mirrors Abloh’s own path: In the 10 years since he was photographed by Tommy Ton with Kanye West and crew outside Comme des Garçons, Abloh has completed the full loop. But reflecting on the longer span of Futura’s journey—combined with his own recent project curating his past body of work for the “Figures of Speech” exhibition in Chicago—has made Abloh consider a bigger picture. “When I make things, I look at it on a scale of 30 years. What gives the esteem and the energy . . . I know the work has to mean something now, but I’m also thinking about what it means when you zoom out.”

There was certainly a sense of space in time in some of this collection. Its span of reference was broad but as legibly interconnected as the branding on the new Nike Dunk, codesigned with Futura, that made its debut on Abloh’s carnation-field runway. The chain-link fence pattern on bags, jackets, and a semitransparent poncho played nicely against the densely hand-knit sweaters that bore patches declaring membership in the “Off-White climbing club.”

Climbing was not only this collection’s second big theme—reflected in the drawstrings worked into suiting, the technical luggage, and the nylon patched knit faux fleeces—but it was also part of the broader metaphor at play. A sky blue suede trench with detachable front pockets, a double-layered floral-print down jacket and shorts, a chain-link knit off-white shirt and shorts, plus the recut denim template workwear in washed and treated technical fabrics were all highly polished and finished pieces. Conversely, the tie-dyed cargo pants (sometimes crystal set) and denim, the bandana-patched T-shirts, those dense knit sweaters, and bleached flannel shirting were all designed to appear roughened and weathered.

In a piece of tape played before the show, Bjork spoke about the “spaced-outness” of perspective, nurtured through the landscape of Iceland, that helped her learn songwriting. Abloh seems to be in search of a similar panoramic point of view—an apex position—and the topography of the clothes he is producing as he makes that ascent is benefiting from it.

Source: VOGUE

FASHIONADO

March 26, 2019

Celine Fall 2019 Menswear Collection

March 26, 2019/ Ashlee Frederick

The received wisdom in menswear always used to be that changes in style were only accepted in minute increments, over decades: a nipped-flare suit in the ’70s (Yves Saint Laurent); a broad shoulder in the ’80s (Armani); a dropped waist in the ’90s (Alexander McQueen); a super-skinny suit in the 2000s (Hedi Slimane). But on the cusp of the 2020s, an entire new culture of clothes for men has exploded as a diverse and very young generation across the globe has become unprecedentedly engaged in expanding the possibilities of their identities through fashion. As Hedi Slimane made his comeback in his first stand-alone menswear show for Celine tonight, it was as if he joined a choir of voices which are competing for new-boy attention. The LVMH menswear shows this week attest to that: Virgil Abloh at Louis Vuitton, Kim Jones at Dior, Jonathan Anderson at Loewe, Kris Van Assche at Berluti (as well as the rest of the vast spectrum of shows we’ve accounted for in Paris and London).

As a rock star of menswear—who made a second mass impact by triggering young men and women to buy during his reinvention of Saint Laurent between 2012 and 2016—Hedi Slimane reentered the boy-specific arena with all the conviction of the awesome marketeer of music-cult heritage styles the industry recognizes him to be. Hedi is Hedi, whatever the name of the brand he’s playing for: He’s trained his audience to expect nothing less.

The question of how he’d shift the needle again began with his opening statement: a black double-breasted suit, white shirt, black skinny tie, and mean New Wave shades. This is a moment when formal tailoring is in play again for the first time in a generation—and those incremental changes of detail still count. Slimane’s bid—by repetition—was to train the eye on specifics. High-waist pleats, cropped-leg length, laced-up flat boots, or the more familiar super-skinny leather/jean thing he’s always done. Then, a vast smorgasbord of layered jackets and coats, iterating a range of ’80s vibes: hints of a boy’s view of dad’s Armani-gray officewear, granddad’s country tweeds, and classic throwback rock-idol leather jackets and leopard-spot drape coats. Slimane can dazzle, no doubt about it. In the glamour stakes on red carpets, the sequined coats and jackets will threaten to outshine any competition.

But as for the real boys—the populist knack that Slimane has that will likely set off an avalanche of copies? The real thing this Celine debut spotlit was the accessories: the sunglasses, the ranges of black leather shoes (hello! No trainers here). And last but not least: the comeback of skinny ties. No Gen Zer has ever worn one of those. It just might prove to be the one affordable item to lasso kids into Celine stores for a look around, ahead of all the others.

Source: VogueRunway

FASHIONADO