Engineered Garments Spring 2021 Menswear

/

How do you make clothing with purpose in a time that feels so purposeless? For 20 years, Daiki Suzuki’s Engineered Garments has labored to eliminate effort in menswear, building flak vests and cargo pants that do the work for their wearer through functional fabrications and an abundance of details like straps, pockets, snaps, and zips. Now, with nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no need for those dozens of pockets, what kind of engineering did Suzuki get up to at his flagship brand?

The answer, he wrote in a press release, has less to do with the science of garment making and more to do with the joy that clothing can bring into one’s life: “One word came to mind when thinking about this: décontracté, which is to say casual poise while maintaining a level of comfort and relaxation. To me it meant focusing on designing more casual styles, while still incorporating military-inspired details.”

Instead of bundled and tactical, the models in Engineered Garments’s spring 2021 look book appear carefree, unrestricted by their clothes. Through a global array of materials and patterns, ranging from Indian florals and madras to Breton stripes, as well as lightweight, elegant polyester twills and nylon-cotton blends, Suzuki fashioned lively clothing that alleviates stress. French army pants and jackets came in slouchy silhouettes, with a new drawstring trouser in a pintuck plaid that epitomizes EG’s workwear-as-loungewear proposition this season. There were also new “overpants”—think of them as even bigger, baggier pants that can be worn over other trousers or the brand’s summery printed shorts.

If you must leave the house, an olive ripstop trench with no shortage of buttons and belts will offer the protection from the outside world we are all desiring. (Perhaps pair it with a new bucket hat featuring, of course, a pocket on its side.) A collaboration with K-Way birthed outerwear, coveralls, and hats in packable nylon. The basket weave dobby fabric of Suzuki’s tailoring shimmered on the screen of my laptop Zoom, but don’t let the festive styling fool you. Engineered Garments’s clothing is still doing a lot of work for its wearers. This season’s job is spreading some good vibes.

Source: VogueRunway

FASHIONADO

DIOR MEN SPRING 2021

/

The electric acclaim Kim Jones has brought to Dior Men since he took the reins in 2018 has centered on the buzzy atmosphere of large-scale runway shows—six of them, already, in two years. Needless to say, with runway congregations ruled out, everything’s very different in the summer of 2020, but that didn’t prevent today’s collaboration between Jones and the 36-year-old Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo, whose stunning huge-scale portraits of Black subjects—partly richly finger-painted—have a skyrocketing reputation in the contemporary art world. “It’s a portrait of an artist who I greatly admire,” Jones said. “[The gallerist] Mera Rubell introduced me to Amoako last year in Miami. I really loved his work and wanted to work with him because of my own links to Africa. He lives between Vienna, where he studied, Ghana, and Chicago. So we sat down and discussed.”

The first results—a collection fusing Boafo’s art with Dior artisanship, a look book, and a documentary film shot at the artist’s studio in Accra and at Jones’ home in London—are launched in a more intimate, in-depth, and, dare we say, intelligent way than could possibly have come across in front of the usual roar of the crowd and show hustle of the Paris collections. One of the unexpected upsides of the enforced break from fashion-as-usual is watching how communication is suddenly transitioning from image to information—from silent screen to talkies. That’s a breakthrough.

So, here we were at 2:30 p.m. for the worldwide laptop Dior Men premiere, watching and hearing Boafo in his studio in Ghana as he paints and describes how he captures friends and family, “and people who create spaces for others to exist.” He speaks about the flat colors he uses to silhouette his figures, and, he explains, “how fashion inspires my work. I tend to look at characters who have that sense of style.” Friends hanging at Boafo’s place are wearing pieces from the collection, and the artist is working in a faded-wallpaper print Dior Men shirt, whose pattern has bounced back in a creative arc from portrait to garment.

The collection is smaller and more edited than it would have been. Jones was working out of his Notting Hill house with a small team and long distance with Dior ateliers in France to get it done over the past months. The result: clothes saturated with uplifting color and print, which pinpoint Boafo’s signatures within the language the designer has established for Dior Men. Later in the video Jones is interviewed on camera in his home studio, speaking about how a visual connection gelled when he saw Boafo’s portrait of a boy in a green beret and a ivy-print shirt: “Ivy was one of Monsieur Dior’s symbols.”

Celebrating and platforming Boafo’s work for a luxury fashion market meant, among other things, transferring the tactile energy of his finger-painted heads into two intensely embroidered sweaters. The pattern from a semi-sheer fil coupé jacquard shirt sprang from a close-up Jones had taken of Boafo’s brush work. He also lifted subtle inspiration from haute couture—the gray taffeta blouson being a renewed, more youthful and summery iteration of the opera coat which opened his last show.

Still, even without the Black Lives Matter uprising which is fundamentally changing the way all institutions are being interrogated now, a collaboration like this was always going to demand detailed explanation. This one is tooled differently from the usual artist-brand collab. Behind it is an exchange with Dior which was stipulated by Boafo. “He said he didn’t want a royalty [for himself], but help to build a foundation for young artists in Accra,” Jones said. A donation made by Christian Dior (the sum was not specified) backs up Boafo’s activism. In using the leverage of his market power to lift up African art and artists, he is one of the new generation of Black artists (Virgil Abloh and Stormzy being two others) who believe in the transformative empowerment of cultural education. In May, Boafo raised $190,000 (three times the estimate) with an online auction of his painting, Aurore Iradukunda, to benefit the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.

The initiative will consist of a building that will host Boafo’s studio, a residence, and an artist-run gallery, supporting young artists in Ghana and their studio practice. “The change needed right now is to support young people through college and training to give everyone equal opportunities,” Jones said. The focus of this project is close to his heart, and, he says, to part of his own upbringing as the son of a hydrogeologist who worked throughout the continent. “We moved to Ethiopia when I was around three years old, spent time living there, and then moved around east Africa and then Botswana. I’ve kept going back for the rest of my life.”

Underlying his motivation—using Dior’s fashion broadcasting capabilities to enlighten a broad audience about the vitality of contemporary African art, as well as facilitating a project with cash—is a quieter salute to Jones’s father, who recently passed away. “The fact that we are working with Amoako Boafo, from Ghana, which was one of my father’s favorite African countries is,” he said, “a fitting tribute to the man who introduced me to Africa and the world.”

Source: VogueRunway

FASHIONADO

VIKTOR & ROLF HAUTE COUTURE A/W 2020

/

Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture, Autumn/Winter 2020 titled “Change” features three wardrobes for three mindsets in extraordinary times of change. Viktor & Rolf subvert the traditional catwalk by showcasing this collection in a special haute couture presentation. The collection consists of three different mini-wardrobes, each symbolizing a different state of mind. Each wardrobe has three outfits: a nightgown, a dressing gown and a coat.

The first wardrobe embodies a somber mood. The satin nightgown sports intricate lace incrustations with a raincloud motif. The grey chenille dressing gown has an intricate bow and extra long sleeves. The look is completed with a majestic coat in animal-friendly faux-leather. Its volume and cone motif does impress and emanates a safe feeling. The look is finished with a face mask accessory.

The second group of outfits signals the conflicting emotions we all experience these days. The nightgown is manically decorated with a polka dot motif of contradictory emojis, each symbolizing a state of mind. Its accompanying dressing gown has asymmetric sashes and bows down the left sleeve. A maximalist asymmetric coat in pink and yellow 'pleather' with glittery accents completes this manic mini wardrobe. Its generous A-line volume guarantees you will remain in your own safe zone while venturing out into the world. The abstract decoration of holes and tunnels is at the same time unapproachable as well as attractive, an effect that is emphasized by the color clash of pinks and yellows.

The last three ensembles radiate love for Autumn/Winter 2020. Red, black and white lace incrustations in a white satin nightgown are used to the opposite effect as before: melancholy becomes serenity. The dressing gown has a snug bodice and an important skirt, featuring two heart shaped pockets in quilted red satin. The finale coat in white faux leather features the heart symbol that shows unity. Illustrating that we all deserve to be loved, regardless of age, color, gender, race, religion or sexuality, it is adorned with dozens of glittering hearts.

The film is directed by Marijke Aerden, narrated by MIKA and shot on location in the Waldorf Astoria in Amsterdam. The 'Change' animation is realised by Studio Maan Bijster. Concept and text by Viktor & Rolf.

“The world around us is changing rapidly. Whether apocalypse or new spiritual era, you will continue to be able to step into the singular universe of spectacular beauty, unexpected elegance and spiritual glamour of Viktor & Rolf.”

FASHIONADO

The Minimalist Nordgreen Timepiece

/

The minimalist Nordgreen timepiece has handsomely embraced my wrist since the day I got it. Nordgreen timepieces are sleek in design and stylish by nature. They offer a variety of styles to even include wristband options. I wanted to gold on gold Philosopher watch.

Nordgreen has achieved a successful balance between form and function with their timepieces with four must-have styles: Pioneer, Philosopher, Infinity and Native. You can customize your Nordgreen timepieces to your personal style by choosing your metal, dial color and strap combination OR you can be savvy while being stylish and choose a “bundle” with various options.

In the words of Nordgreen:

Why We Do What We Do

As watch-lovers, we believe all watches should have the highest quality and best design. As Danes, we believe in companies that are honest, sustainable, and that put others first. As consumers, we couldn’t find any affordable watch company that embodied all of these things.

So we created it.

Our names are Pascar and Vasilij, and we are two lifelong friends, watch enthusiasts, and born-and-bred Danes on a mission to deliver true Scandinavian design and lifestyle to everyone.

FASHIONADO

Virgil Abloh Raises $1 Million Dollars to Support the Next Generation of Black Fashion Industry Leaders

/
tumblr_f8303423ce0d50a87e30ad314ab710ef_6f58cf17_1280.png

Designer Virgil Abloh announced today that he has raised $1 million to benefit scholarships for Black students through the Virgil Abloh™️ "Post-Modern" Scholarship Fund, which will be managed in partnership with the Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF), the foremost fashion-oriented education and workforce development nonprofit in the U.S.  Quotes from Virgil Abloh and Peter Arnold, FSF's Executive Director, are available below.

The Abloh Fund's mission is to foster equity and inclusion within the fashion industry by providing scholarships to students of academic promise of Black, African-American, or African descent. Mr. Abloh named the fund "Post Modern" to represent that recipients will not only receive funds, but will also be given access to vital career support services and mentoring. In addition to his own donation, Abloh raised funds from his partners evian, Farfetch, Louis Vuitton, and New Guards Group, with more partners to be announced in the future as the Fund continues to work for long-term change.

In connection with the launch of the Fund, Mr. Abloh has entered into a long-term partnership with FSF to help enhance their internship, mentorship, and networking offerings.

Peter Arnold, FSF Executive Director, said: “At the heart of the FSF’s mission is elevating the voices and creative visions of talented youth from underrepresented backgrounds who are the future leaders of our industry. Virgil is a trailblazer and a game-changer, leveraging his considerable influence to effect change from within. We are grateful to have this opportunity to partner with him and his partners to impact the lives of so many deserving young people."

FASHIONADO

Giambattista Valli Fall 2020 Couture

/

“If they’re coming to me, they want the best of me.” That was Giambattista Valli earlier today on a Zoom call from Paris, hours before his fall 2020 haute couture collection would be unveiled via a video starring Joan Smalls. True to his word, the new collection is signature Giamba. There’s no COVID-time second-guessing of his instincts—no economizing on silk tulle or scaling back of faille and taffeta bows. If anything, the tulle tiers are frothier, the bows more voluminous. A face-covering mask could’ve been a nod to the pandemic, but in black chiffon it was more decorative than functional.

Smalls models the collection’s 18 looks in the video, and in the split-screen next to her, scenes of Paris in winter are revealed. “With or without us, nature was going on,” Valli remarked of the months we spent under lockdown. “In the horror of what we’re passing through, there was beauty blooming at the same time.” On day one of this digital couture week, nature is a recurring motif, as is the human desire to get out into it. It may be irrational exuberance on our parts, but it is exuberance which is better than its opposite, and after months of restrictions, this kind of pleasure seeking is hardly a surprise. Even before the collection made its online debut, Valli had two virtual orders. “Happy times are never going to be démodé,” he said. He also has the advantage of a very young clientele; “they’re used to buying on the web,” he added.

As his bride (see gallery above), Smalls wears a strapless dress of ruched ivory tulle decorated with a pair of black bows that match the one that accents her cathedral-length veil of polka-dot embroidered tulle. Valli was eager to highlight the couture techniques of each piece—from a sequin minidress and its many-layered point d’esprit cape to a white ballgown decorated neckline to hem in lipstick-red feathers—and he proudly announced he was able to retain all of his employees during the shutdown and the reopening that’s followed. Amidst this ongoing crisis, that really is cause for happy times.

Source: Vogue

FASHIONADO

Hermès Spring 2021 Menswear

/

Locked down in le confinement, Véronique Nichanian binged on theater—watched online, of course. This sparked the start of a process that led to today’s livestreamed presentation of her spring 2021 menswear collection from the airy foyer of Les Ateliers Hermès in Pantin, on the edges of Paris. It was, said Nichanian on a call shortly afterwards, a “four-hands” operation overseen by her in partnership with Cyril Teste, an experimental director whose Collective MxM specializes in the poetic expression of live dramatic performance via streamed video.

Presented as if shot in one take—with the exception of a cut around a loving close-up of a Slim d’Hermès watch in stainless steel and Barénia calfskin—Teste’s direction here was reminiscent of that of Sam Mendes in 1917. The result was restrained in that it communicated an evocative soupçon of this collection, rather than attempting an exhaustive à la carte. It was also dynamic in its presentation, whooshing us down in an elevator with a model wearing a double-fronted tailored jacket and sash-collared shirt, and then around the light-filled atrium.

Rather than reproducing a show, this qualified more as a show-experience with footage of Nichanian and her team working backstage. There were some especially nice details of her discussing with Teste that she wanted to emphasize the leather detailing in the indentations of a rib-knit sweater as well as the belt worn below it. A close-up on the shoulders of a model wearing a striped shirt revealed a subtly opaque pattern hidden within. Other scenes revealed glimpses of layered shirting in panels of contrasting striping used in jackets, and zippered waistcoats. We zoomed across to a model called Jai wearing a minimally cut yet generously silhouetted putty suit who was told he had “two minutes” and promptly left the building to take a call, before panning to a less urgent mise-en-scène in which another model listened to Primal Scream on his headphones and we got to note his seersucker-looking jacket, also putty, tucked into his slightly darker, lovely, drawstring pants.

Before this presentation went live, Hermès delivered a care package of nibbles to my apartment. I had fully intended to watch this collection video while grazing at the kindly provided black truffle chips, olive tapenade, and lemon verbena tea, but, of course, one of the big problems with a digitally presented show is that the house cannot control the context in which the end product is seen. Crushingly, my children pinched all the food. Even worse, as I watched Nichanian’s presentation on my laptop, one of them was howling with rage across the room following a premature death on Fortnite.

What was much better than a real show about this one, however, was having the chance to get to speak properly with Nichanian—this is rarely doable at the défilé, as she is besieged by Hermès worshippers. As this unconventional show cannot be conventionally reviewed, here is some of what she had to say:

“I had never met Cyril before, but I knew his work and I jumped at the chance to do this project together in four-hands. At the beginning we met on the phone, and talked a lot, and it was like working with an old friend. He knew my clothes but he did not know the job, and this world. I explained to him what a press show is, and what is going on before in the backstage. And we decided together to work on not what is the backstage, but what is called in French ‘hors-champ,’ or ‘off-camera.’ As I told him, it was an opportunity to present exactly what I wanted people to see because when you are on the runway you might be looking at the clothes, or the shoes, or the model—I don’t know. But as a designer I know exactly what I want the audience to see…and it was very funny to do that together [with Cyril].... We all had a lot of joy working together, his team and my team.

Hermès Spring 2021 Menswear Vogue Fashionado

I held a show at Pantin in the atelier once before, a long time ago, and it was my idea to come back here again where the craftsmen are, in this beautiful space with beautiful light.… Freshness, lightness, and joy were something I really concentrated on throughout lockdown and in the making of the collection. And it was strange, doing it at home on the computer.… I did the same double-lapel jacket we saw last winter, in flannel, and I played with different stripes and different blues, and there was a chaîne d’ancre printed over the shirt striping—I’m glad you saw that detail because I was not sure if the camera would show it! The print you see towards the end was from La Danse des Chevaux, a new scarf, and the third print, which was not in the show, is playing with tiny robos, robots. There is a blue leather jacket, in suede, that also has the chaîne d’ancre, although you could not see it in the movie, and the man you see walking behind the mirrors is wearing a noncolor blouson in deerskin, very beautiful, in beige. But I put just two pieces of leather in the collection...although in that knitwear you talked about, yes, we worked on putting the leather between the ribs of the knit.… Thank you, I’m glad you liked the sandals! We did this sandal that is closed, a gardener’s sandal.

The collection is bigger than what was presented to you in the film. We saw 18 looks there, but we are photographing 26, which is what we will share with you. And that is less than usual. And sometimes it was quite difficult working with the team, all on the computers, but at the end we did a good job. Because we made these pieces, real pieces.

Am I looking forward to the return of the défilé? In a way, but I like this way of working too. I like the idea of seeing the reality but also sharing the details on the computer too, and maybe we can play on that.… Everybody is trying to find the right way now, and it is open, and we can investigate.… Yes, it’s an opportunity.”

Nichanian, who has been in her position since 1988, demonstrated both the movement in her clothes and the flexibility in her attitude with this presentation for Hermès today.

Source: Vogue

FASHIONADO