The world is in danger of overthinking and overconsuming, thinking too much makes you lose the moment, while massive consumption weakens the magic of possessing.
We wear whatever rag, right to believe that we made our own choices but, definitely, we’re wearing marketing, we’re wearing other people’s choices. If it does not sell or does not meet business expectations, it must ‘bugger off’- see Lanvin’s part-of-the-furniture Elbaz slinging his hook- emblem of ‘The rich also cry‘-. Even the brightest stars stop twinkling, sooner or later, all that glitters in fashion, most times is lurex, sometimes is gold-pleated shit. Creativity is a lost paradise, we are ‘overstyled without a cause’, we’re flattened, downtrodden, we all have become the type consumer.
Ever-new brands are as doomed as demimondaines, they exist as long as somebody shells out the dosh. Investors would rather reanimate the glory of old ‘holy’ brands- the resurrection of Vionnet, Schiapparelli and Bill Blass to name a few- in so doing for a saint that makes a comeback, a young fashion martyr is offered as sacrifice. This is the era of celebs-singers-models-whatever turned editor turned stylist turned designer. This is the WTF era of fashion, bolthole for those who had a strong stardom and now bask in the warmth of a new artificial rebirth- or call it identity crisis-. The 2015 CFDA-winners Grady Twins- better known as the Olsen sis-, the former Disney Channel mutants Miley Cyrus and Hilary Duff as well as Ye West, JTrousersnake, Jenny from the block et alii of the cool gang, raised through the ranks of fashion- and whose success counts on teeny boppers and snotty young shavers playing Di Caprio in his heyday-, I’m horrified. Their contribution to fashion is as inadequate as their ordinary skills but, the revenue growth is astronomical enough to make capitalists continue investing. That’s not fashion, that’s a club of people suffering depersonalization disorder, fashion is quite another thing, quite another decorum, it has worthier purposes than merely hoarding money- yes, I’m one of the last idealists-.
Once- until the ’90s- designers had the guts, jumped the gun, provoked, shocked, they were allowed to bite off more than they could chew, consumers hung on their lips, buyers were searching for ecstasy, that was the golden age of creativity, experimentation and risk. Today designers are no fool, use overexperimented models, safe, redundant, easy to remember, stolen-rejuvenated-and-imposed, yet again, as grandeur. Fashion has lost its hard-on- we, fashion voyeurs, too- and, to top it all, times are not fertile. Creativity is trapped within the walls of the finest fashion schools, ivory towers where designers-to-be are well protected from the mediocre fashion climate favoured by the business-oriented mindset. To expose them to the market restraints- before making them experiment and be conscious of their virgin creative potential- would be as cruel as to put them into the hands of a fate worse than death. They have to feel free to dream, create, gloat, question, fall, swear, demolish, start afresh.
London-based designer Alexander Benekritis is mature and beautiful: a DILF, def!- sorry for mangling, Lana- and is able to kick even the well-established fashion ass with his conceptual confidence. The Canadian-born eclectic hunk’s personal view is ‘the more exposure to the world you have, the more in tune you become‘. Attracted to extreme lifestyles, subcultures and sexual fetishes, Alex is the prince charming of the land of outsiders and rejects the inviolable principles of social hypocrisy he cleverly describes with his clothes. Chopped-then-reconstructed duvets, bulky overcoats, ethnic motifs and heavy knits- from his MA collection- are ‘a reflection of what I see in the world, a mixture of complete euphoria, with terror, and boredom‘. With that collection it seems Alex put on his own back the disillusionment with reality and turned it into an array of awesome clothes as result of his terrific ideas and creative sangfroid -which unveil the courage and pleasure to live à rebours-. Come on Alex, work your ass off and give the world something more in the near future!
Alexander Benekritis
Photos by: Giovanni Martins
Stylist: Ria Poly
Alexander Benekritis
Photos by: Giovanni Martins
Stylist: Ria Poly
Alexander Benekritis
Photos by: Giovanni Martins
Stylist: Ria Poly
Stay for a while into the young mind of British fashion designer Joseph Turvey to understand how experimentation and manipulation are crucial in fashion. He’s an ace when it involves using hand drawn illustrations to create prints and pushing the boundaries of streetwear and sportswear to a deluxe dimension. For the AW15, Joseph collaborated with embroidery artist Natalie Martin- who created decorative patches to applique onto clothes- and lace mill Sophie Hallette- Guipure and Chantilly lace maker-. The collection was gripped by a dark ether taking inspiration from the cult horror flicks, old wives tales and folk laws. It’s a sombre, heavy offering: faces, skulls, floral patterns, sporty nylon, wool, delicate lace but, if less is more, the most is exactly what reveals Joe’s talent.
Joseph Turvey
Photos by: Damien Fry
Stylist: Sam Carder
Make-up: Athena Paginton
Hair: John Knigh
Joseph Turvey
Photos by: Damien Fry
Stylist: Sam Carder
Make-up: Athena Paginton
Hair: John Knigh
Joseph Turvey
Photos by: Damien Fry
Stylist: Sam Carder
Make-up: Athena Paginton
Hair: John Knigh
‘Cerebral’ is what I though the very first moment I immersed myself in Guillem Rodriguez‘s work. The Spanish designer provides his impressive aesthetics with intimate meanings skilfully balancing expressive tenderness and the disdain for the norm. From the début collection Romantycs (2013) to his latest, Guillem has proved himself as a growing beautiful mind of couture. For AW15 La Nuit– composer Jean-Philippe Rameau is a reference-, the designer gets into the historical codes of femininity to add a gentle panache to menswear. Brodè jackets, wide-legged trousers, furry belts, and small-bodiced tops come in night blue, black and white. Man’s body is interpreted with no reticence but intense eroticism and, in the end, Guillem’s artistry overwhelms with a rush of unconventional beauty and destroys- with his audacity- a little bit more of the failing sexist culture.
Guillem Rodriguez
Photos by: Rafa Castells
Make up: Ioanna Catargiu
Guillem Rodriguez
Photos by: Rafa Castells
Make up: Ioanna Catargiu
Guillem Rodriguez
Photos by: Rafa Castells
Make up: Ioanna Catargiu
Disidentification and mutation toward other forms of aesthetic pleasure is a key assignment for Verena Schepperheyn to complete. Abandoning the fascination of the western glamour, Verena’s AW15 collection entitled ‘All this in its place for now‘ echoes the rough grace of the Wabi-sabi’s nothing remains, nothing is finished, nothing is perfect. Menswear collapses so sparingly into womenswear that the feminine references of the collection- sheer fabrics, cut-outs and palazzos- exquisitely capture the feminizing man’s fashion Zeitgeist of our time. Verena succeeded in creating a collection that could have been a mere all-talk-no-action but, her talent ensured everything was ideally where it was supposed to be, in its place– for now!
Verena Schepperheyn
Photos by: Isolde Woudstra
Hair & Make-up: Berry Ruijsch
Shoes in collaboration with Rosanne Bergsma
Verena Schepperheyn
Photos by: Isolde Woudstra
Hair & Make-up: Berry Ruijsch
Shoes in collaboration with Rosanne Bergsma
Verena Schepperheyn
Photos by: Isolde Woudstra
Hair & Make-up: Berry Ruijsch
Shoes in collaboration with Rosanne Bergsma
Modern and ‘insurgent’ designer Martin Maldonado of Martin Across would have been a perfect fit of Marinetti’s Futurism. The AW15 collection ‘The Landscaper’ emphasises his genuine potential in matching colours, pumping volumes and distorting shapes with ‘architectural’ prowess. His fancy adventurers are a hymn to monster proportions, earthy hues and the dynamic computer-generated undulating topographical surfaces- recalling to mind Waddington’s epigenetic landscape-. Maldonado’s gripping visuals and captivating design will certainly get – his Martin – Across to the fashion system.
Martin Across
Martin Across
Martin Across
Transformism and technologisation are where it’s at, and Italian designer Irene Silvestri knows it by heart. She’s the brain behind the one off White Mouths‘ modular and detachable ‘complex structures’ -to define them clothes would be reductive- which are rocking Japan these days. The project’s creative get-go is heavily built around the immersive-interactive-kinetic art of groups as Italian Gruppo T, antielitist Fluxus Movement, and the interest in virtuoso fashion designers as Vibskov, Margiela and Willhelm. The SS16 capsule is about wholeness decaying in fragments, all parts- made in high performative fabrics- are assembled and finished with the thermo-welding technique and entirely transformable. At a time when fashion passes off the boredom as pizazz, Irene’s White Mouths will give you a real reason to be with your mouths wide open.
White Mouths
White Mouths
White Mouths
When it comes to the up-and-comers, we’re still able to feel the consuming passion that moves their brilliance, we go deep into their souls, slide into the folds of their dreams, fears, painful thoughts and unrestrained divertissement. Fashion should rediscover its egotism, its own pleasure more than its submission to the –fifty shades of– consumer. Those young designers embody a face of fashion which still dares, glistens as though the spotlights do not shine down on it. They spectacularise their subjectivity, fashion giants subjugate themselves to market demand. This is the lesson. Anarchy VS Rigour.
