DIOR MEN Pre-Fall 2021 Menswear

This time last December, Kim Jones’s many fans across the fashion and art worlds were gathered in Miami Beach. His Dior Men show was a Basel-adjacent affair, complete with a walk-through of the new Rubell Museum. The pandemic scuttled plans to stage a show in Beijing for Jones’s latest outing—there was a livestreamed video and a screening party at the city’s Phoenix International Media Center instead—but in every other way, this collection is just as ambitious as that pre-COVID occasion.

The coronavirus crisis shuttered businesses across New York City this year. Still, even on the quietest days of the summer, there was a line outside SoHo’s Dior Men store. Jones has a phenomenon on his hands; there are similar lines in Los Angeles and other cities. “People like to feel part of a gang, only now because of social media it is much more global,” he said on a Zoom call. These off-season collections feed that global excitement.

Last year, Jones revealed a colorful collaboration with Shawn Stussy, the streetwear OG. This season, he tapped Kenny Scharf, an American artist who emerged from the 1980s East Village scene, making street art alongside his friends Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. “The fun and the energy of that time—you see young kids being excited by Kenny Scharf’s work. It’s speaking across generations,” Jones said.

Scharf’s canvases can now fetch up to six figures, but he still has street cred: Via “Karbombz,” a public art project, he’s tagged upwards of 300 cars with his imaginary creatures—all for free. Together, the designer and the artist selected contemporary pieces and older ones to reproduce, including When the Worlds Collide, a 1984 canvas in the Whitney’s permanent collection. Scharf also designed 12 Chinese zodiac signs for the show’s knits and underpinnings, and, of course, he had free rein to reinterpret the Dior logo.

“I just wanted it to be a very full-on version, using specific techniques to recreate his work in really beautiful ways, to make it even more Pop,” Jones said. In some cases, the Dior ateliers were joined by Chinese artisans who rendered Scharf paintings in delicate seed embroideries. Silhouette-wise, Jones’s instinct was to soften his distinctive tailoring and give it a more lounge-y attitude. Jackets are belted like robes and pants are easy; some of the models wear Oblique-patterned slippers. We are still locked in, after all.

Answering needs or triggering desire, Jones erases distinctions between high and low, and his roving eye sees heroes in all places. This season he invited the DJ Honey Dijon to the party, and she enlisted Lady Miss Kier to record a Dior-ified rendition of Deee-Lite’s megahit “What Is Love?” The intergalactic vibe of the runway video was partly inspired by Jones’s interest in The Mandalorian. “I thought it was fun to bring all these things together in a time when it’s quite negative, and to have a bit of optimism,” he said.

Scharf, whose first show was at New York’s Fiorucci boutique in 1979 and earliest fashion hookup was with Stephen Sprouse, is the perfect Jones collaborator. His work gleefully obliterates boundaries too. “I’m one of the inventors of all that,” Scharf said on a call from his L.A. studio. He raved about Jones: “He’s a listener, he’s a learner, and that shows. He went really deep into what I’m doing.” Those lines outside Greene Street seem only bound to grow.

Source: VogueRunway/Nicole Phelps

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DRIES VAN NOTEN SPRING 2021 MENSWEAR

Dries Van Noten is speaking with wry cheerfulness about how COVID-19 has made him rewire the design habit of a lifetime. “You know how fond I was of fashion shows? The whole collection was built up around the idea of putting it on a catwalk. But this time, it was thinking about clothes for a shoot.” With a runway out of the question, Van Noten found himself in the completely new territory of directing photographs and a film. That’s a first in a 34-year career. “Because we’ve never had an advertising campaign. We lost things, but we learned things. It’s pushing a new kind of creativity.”

Another first is the fact that Van Noten has amalgamated his women’s and men’s collections into one—a process of rationalization (cost reducing, too), which was already underway before the pandemic. When you dive into the photographs—partly shot on a breezy day on a Rotterdam beach—the design symbiosis makes total sense: board shorts, Bermudas, easy cotton jackets worn by both boys and girls. “We wanted to work around beauty [that] evokes energy—not one that makes you dream or linger on things that are past, which makes you nostalgic,” he says. “It had to push you to the future, to give energy.”

Van Noten asked the Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen to shoot the images and film. “She captures the moment in a very good way. There’s a directness and she works fast and spontaneously.” Sassen is in the Netherlands, not far from Van Noten’s Antwerp base. Creative groups banding together to make fashion imagery happen locally is becoming a super-interesting phenomenon in every country now. So when it came to making the film, the socially distanced crew moved into a studio in Amsterdam, and the models started dancing in front of what looks curiously like a ’60s-type light show, or possibly some sort of neo-rave type of thing.

In fact, the source is the very much earlier work of the New Zealand artist Len Lye, whose pioneering technique of painting on celluloid film predates psychedelia by decades. “He was such a discovery for me. He started to do this in the late ’20s, early ’30s.” Working with the Len Lye Foundation, Van Noten developed the prints that run through the collection, “psychedelic sun, sunshine and moons, light bars, and palm trees.” And quite brilliant effects they are, for a designer whose innovation must always move forward through print—the attraction for his art-conscious customers—and through pragmatism.

Tough as the times may be, Van Noten has all the elements empathetically calibrated for what people might want to look and feel like next summer. There are jackets made of “two layers of cotton [that] are foiled and slightly padded, very soft, nice to touch”; black papery cotton dresses with cutout necklines; an oversized parka printed inside and out with a new inkjet technique; lots more. Van Noten is never one to hype or overstate any situation. He might, one suspects, even have enjoyed some of the ways the creative chips are falling in the face of the 2020 emergency. “I’m quite happy,” he reflected. “The limitations are not always limitations for me anymore.”

Source: VogueRunway

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PFW 2021 - UN REVE SUR LA COTE D’AZUR by DARA SENDERS in collaboration with EMILY BRICKEL EDELSON of CHIC SKETCH

Debuting today, Dara Senders presents her new collection UN REVE SUR LA COTE D’AZUR and digital presentation/ look book in collaboration with Emily Brickel Edelson, co-founder and lead fashion illustrator of Chic Sketch.

A mixture of pastels, muted jewel tones, and gilded metallics sets the color pallet for this collection. Hues reminiscent of a bright sunny day that leads into a magnificent sunset over the Mediterranean Sea and lavender fields. The array of sophisticated ready-to-wear separates such as ruffled floral print organza and textured metallic threaded chiffon statement blouses and kimonos provide the ease and comfort of day to night dressing. Romantic cocktail dresses and flowy evening gowns sit alongside plenty of sequin numbers to make life and dressing more fabulous. Whether you are dressing for a zoom call for business or pleasure, a dinner date, all the way to an intimate outdoor gathering with family and friends Dara Senders’ 2020/2021 collection will have you looking your best.   

All garments are made to order in Paris, France by Dara Senders’ team of couturiers with an incredible attention to detail and craftsmanship. Each garment made is cut with the brand’s innovative pattern making technology that allows each garment to fit with perfection and ease from sizes XS-3XL. The first drop of Un Rêve Sur La Côte D’azur by Dara Senders will launch for pre-sale on October 5th on DaraSenders.com with a scheduled Holiday delivery. The second drop is scheduled to launch on the designer’s website for pre-sale at the end of October. The Pret-a-Porter collection prices under $400.00 USD while the couture collection prices under $700 USD. 

“Designing luxurious well-tailored clothing that can elevate a woman’s style and allows her to feel beautiful from the inside-out and vice-versa, no matter her physique is what I find most fulfilling! I believe all women, no matter their shape and size deserve to feel and look fashion forward, fabulous every day.” - Dara Senders explains.

Given the world’s current climate with COVID-19, Dara knew she had to think outside of the box to create a visually captivating, zero contact, digital presentation to not risk the health and safety of others that a traditional fashion show or editorial photoshoot may have. She loved the idea of two female entrepreneurs joining creative forces to create a unique way of bringing her brands collection to life. This is how the colorful collaboration between Emily Brickel Edelson, co-founder and lead fashion illustrator of Chic Sketch and Dara Senders came into fruition.  Dara explains, “I knew collaborating with Emily Brickel Edelson to artistically and visually showcase the ambiance of  my collection as its presentation would be a perfect fit. Through her art she truly captured my collection’s ambiance and gave a 2D presentation movement, emotion and depth. It is so wonderful when young women entrepreneurs can come together and support each other wholeheartedly!”

Both women have worked closely to tell the captivating story of “Un Rêve Sur La Côte D’azur” by Dara Senders. Through Emily’s art and renowned fashion illustrations in which visually showcases this collection magnificently,  tickles one’s senses of completely emerging into the French Riviera. “On behalf of Chic Sketch, we are thrilled to collaborate with Dara Senders for her new 2020/2021 Collection. Dara's designs are the epitome of what fashion forward women want to wear to feel beautiful at any size. Through the Dara Senders’ collection, in collaboration with my artwork, one thing we have in common is wanting women to always feel and look beautiful and inspiring women globally to live their dream lives. Now more than ever, we all need something to look forward to and something to wear that reminds us of who we are and gives us a reason to glam up everyday with a little sparkle and a lot of chic!" says Emily Brickel.

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