“I think these days you can put a guy, say, in a pair of sequin pants and a nearly transparent knit sweater with a traditional English wool men’s jacket on top of it. And nobody’s going to say ‘Oh, how shocking,’” Dries Van Noten said.
The phrase of the designer from Antwerp seems to perfectly summarize the material versatility of the next season in question, which cannot but be conditioned by the disordered mix of diverse ways of dressing "real people". This chaotic look has dominated many of the runways of recent Fashion Weeks, where menswear seems to have never been so bizarre.
Trying to put order to the clump of information, we can initially argue that some phenomena already manifested for the summer twenty-three will also be reflected in the following fall / winter. The message that emerged clearly from Milano Unica seems to have been that of the return to a luxury à la "Paul Poiret" according to which in the Eco Resort, Eco Palace and Eco Yacht we can find all the refinement, exoticism, elegance and fluidity that the Parisian designer of the early twentieth century was able to introduce in his creations.
With a more postmodern and metropolitan style, Premiere Vision focuses on a complex and binary world, in which some contrasting elements must find their synthesis and coexistence through reason and common sense. The connection between nature and sustainable technology, between virtue and fashionable frivolity, between imaginary and real worlds seems to be the aesthetic guide to intercept the taste and behavior of consumers.
From these assumptions I try to expose some trends that could direct the work of fabric designers for the next season:
- Techno Over Size, characterized by shiny, technical fabrics, composed of mixtures of synthetic and artificial fibers but, very important, produced by post- or pre-consumer sustainable productions; the hands must be very drooping and not rigid in order to accommodate very abundant cuts and modeling both for the outerwear and for the trousers, all very décontracté;
- the Dandy wool style, very evident in the fashion shows of Kenzo, Rhude and Paul Smith, characterized by a return to the wool suit with slightly oversized designs, but smaller than in previous seasons; In these outfits there is both a timid return to the tie and a hint of pinstripe design, completely disappeared in the past seasons;
- Laminated fabrics in a decidedly innovative way attracted attention in the presentation of "Engineered Garments", Daiki Suzuki's New York fashion label known for its elegant and functional outdoor clothing. The collection draws inspiration from the film "The Lighthouse"; where large 8-thread sweaters, waxed overcoats with hook closures, doubled and quilted throws, ponchos in fleece and polyester coupled seem to share the fate of the two guardians stuck on their lighthouse to generate madness.
This is precisely the idea that seems to be more innovative but at the same time extremely usable to start the season. Film and collection are based on the same principles. "The Lighthouse", in fact, an extraordinary black and white auteur horror starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, is an unmissable cinephile experience suitable for the most refined palates, which wants to be the sum of all the suggestions belonging to the less reassuring seafaring legends and that excels in creating an evocative crescendo of paranoia and tension entirely focused on the concept that gives the title to the film.
The Daiki Suzuki collection is influenced by the knowledge built in Woolrich, the iconic American brand that for two hundred years has been making technical jackets designed for performance, functionality, and durability but which find space in the most exclusive concept stores. It is not just a singular homage to the film, but rather a very empathetic reinterpretation of the atmosphere of the island through the designer's inimitable lens in which the period of pandemic enclosure that we have all experienced is reverberate. It is an "easy" style made of waxed cotton coats, heavy wool blazers, cargo pants, jumpsuits, ribbed sweaters that constitute a disturbing Victorian ethic that you want to wear.
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