"Over the past seasons, the lighter has become a plaything for designers’ imagination and creativity all over the world. Here, it is rendered in a pendant you can attach to your bag or even to your necklace for a bold jewellery statement."
BOF: In Paris, Few Break Free From Comfort Zone /
While even Rei Kawakubo and Rick Owens seemed to stay in their creative comfort zones, Undercover and Y-Project emerged as winners of the week.
PARIS, France — The Paris Fashion Week which closed yesterday was a tiring ride with little that could be said to move fashion forward. But the rise of overtly political statements, questioning the way women are represented (and, indeed, represent themselves) through clothing, added a spark of current events and deeper meaning to the proceedings. Fashion is about self-representation and dressing is a political act because it deals with the way an individual relates to the community — adhering to shared codes, refusing them or twisting them up.
Y/PROJECT Tartan Knit and Asymmetrical Pencil Skirt
Indeed, watching a plethora of collections over the course of a grueling nine days that could easily be reduced to six or seven, one had a nagging feeling that few designers have any intention of really challenging themselves. Paris was all about designers sticking to their comfort zones, tweaking the recipe just a little bit without feeling the need to truly move forward. In a way, it is understandable: uncertain times require the reassuring feeling that comes from repetition. If the urge is to sell, sticking to the familiar items that make up a brand's vocabulary can be a sound strategy. Just take two of the most closely watched fashion brands in the world, Gucci and Balenciaga: the respective creative directors invariably deliver what, in the end, is just a variation on their respective formulas.
Glenn Martens, the mastermind behind Y/Project and another winner of the season, has created such a signature. For a start, in a world of stylists, he is a true designer, creating challenging hybrids of streetwear and couture that look like nothing else around. The way Martens deals with shapes, volumes and draping is progressive, and actually offers hope for the future of creation in a world of merchandising. The designer has his own comfort zone too, of course, but it’s one that feels like an elastic space of constant reinvention.
Y/PROJECT Off the Shoulder Knit, Draped Shorts, Open Toe Sandals and Slinky Earrings
Indeed, watching a plethora of collections over the course of a grueling nine days that could easily be reduced to six or seven, one had a nagging feeling that few designers have any intention of really challenging themselves. Paris was all about designers sticking to their comfort zones, tweaking the recipe just a little bit without feeling the need to truly move forward. In a way, it is understandable: uncertain times require the reassuring feeling that comes from repetition. If the urge is to sell, sticking to the familiar items that make up a brand's vocabulary can be a sound strategy. Just take two of the most closely watched fashion brands in the world, Gucci and Balenciaga: the respective creative directors invariably deliver what, in the end, is just a variation on their respective formulas.
But in a general climate of nostalgia and remakes — in this respect, the expansive Margiela retrospective which opened at the Palais Galliera museum felt like a warning — is anyone thinking about the future?
Read the full article by Angelo Flaccavento on Business of Fashion HERE
MM6 MAISON MARGIELA Fall 18 Show /
Never having darkened the door of the Mayfair public house—“pub” in local parlance—called the Running Horse, it’s impossible to speak of how radically different it was for the MM6 presentation. But given that the Margiela team had gone and foiled the entire place in glossy mirrored silver, Andy Warhol Factory-style (reflecting the label’s almost entirely metallic collection), it’s a pretty safe bet the regulars wouldn’t have recognized the old place.
There’s nothing new in the house of Margiela claiming a space as their own and conducting a fashion presentation there—a particularly memorable one took place in a ratty Parisian café by the Seine, as I seem to recall—but there was something quite prescient in referencing Warhol in this London pub.
It’s not the first time this season we’ve seen an artistic backdrop speak to a troubled, perplexing reflection of our world today, but there was certainly something clever in the jarring display we saw here; the silveriness of the parkas, down jackets, vests, and slip dresses might have spoken of a nostalgic idea of the space-age future, but the cracked, fractured surfaces of the clothes suggested that the dreamy notion of where we might end up was just as broken.
With its neat and concise execution of a theme, this latest MM6 offering suggests it’s being pushed to make a more conceptual statement now that the label is being creatively renewed, what with John Galliano’s incredible couture and menswear debut of late. (MM6 is designed by an in-house team.)
That was certainly true of the collection’s 500-strong limited-edition tee, which will be decorated with Polaroid images of the collection taken before the presentation started. It’s positively Warholian in idea and in execution.
See the full collection HERE
Text by Mark Holgate
Oyster Magazine- Vogue or bogue? /
Glenn Martens and his incredible, wobbly, length-fluid label that we love, Y/Project, unleashed a collab with UGG at Paris Fashion Week.
“The UGG Classic boot is one of the most recognisable shoes in history,” Martens said. “Its timeless and challenging design made it a worldwide statement. Y/Project is about challenges.
Since launch we’ve been twisting the grounded codes, we challenged the acceptable and triggered people by putting focus on the unexpected. By reworking the Classic boot with a typical Y/Project twist such as the triple overlaps and the extra-long legs we want to celebrate the UGG brand’s unique history.”
BFC Vogue Designer Fashion Fund 2018 Shortlist Announced /
Congratulations to Molly Goddard for being shortlisted for the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund 2018, announced yesterday by the British Fashion Council (BFC).
Established in 2008, The Fund aims to discover new talent and accelerate growth over a twelve-month period through mentoring and awarding a cash prize of £200,000.
The shortlisted designers will be interviewed by the Fund Judging Committee on Thursday 15th March 2018 at Mortimer House, London W1T 3JH with the winner being announced on Tuesday 8th May 2018.
Previous winners of the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund include Christopher Kane, Erdem, Mary Katrantzou, Mother of Pearl, Nicholas Kirkwood, palmer//harding, Peter Pilotto and Sophia Webster.
Y/Project’s SS18 campaign features upskirts, swimming, and a horse /
The latest campaign from Parisian trailblazers Y/Project is here, and, as usual, it’s a full-blown family affair (cue track by Mary J. Blige). This season, creative director Glenn Martens and his entire atelier team piled into cars and drove to the outskirts of the French capital to shoot the label’s dynamic SS18 collection.
Martens has long shunned the idea of glossy, over-produced campaigns and instead focuses on the diverse people and personalities that make up the Y/Project family – “Since my arrival, it’s all been about celebrating individuality,” he says. “I see a lot of brands pushing this ‘army-effect’ – once you wear the brand, you become the brand. You hide behind their logo. I definitely respect the approach, but for us, we want to do the opposite,” he finishes. It certainly helps that, as well as being full of personality, his team are really, really ridiculously good looking.
Shot and styled by long-term collaborators Arnaud Lajeunie and Ursina Gysi, the campaign features members of the team lounging in the restaurant where the campaign was shot, gathering together for a family photo and, in one model’s case, riding a horse. When asked how that came about, Martens says “that was Arnaud’s idea. I think he just loves horses and wanted to find an excuse to go into the countryside and do some horse whispering.”
What was the starting point for the collection, how did it evolve from AW17?
Glenn Martens: The starting point of all collections is construction. I guess it’s a leftover of my architecture studies. We develop concepts and twists which we project onto different product groups. Once we fall in love with some technique, we start giving form and colour to the globality of the collection. One of our biggest SS18 stories is the merging of different pieces into one. You don’t really know where one piece starts and where the other one ends. Some of our pieces therefore have up to five different ways they can be worn. It's fun! I still discover new ways of wearing certain designs shown last June.
What was the inspiration behind it?
Glenn Martens: We take any reference we like regardless of era or subculture. It is a very emotional process. There’s no rule, it just happens, we do what we want and try to find some balance in between the extremes. Our collection plan therefore flirts with streetwear, sportswear, couture, tailoring. It’s a kind of celebration of this huge melting pot we’re living in. Paris is a never-ending source of inspiration, too. There’s all the great history, but it’s also a metropole embracing many different cultures. We want to talk to all kinds of different people from many different backgrounds.
Tell us a little about some of the people featured in the campaign…
Glenn Martens: Each one is part of the history of the brand. Redouane for example is a boy Ursina found when she was street-casting in Les Halles (a shopping mall in Paris) He’s been in our last three shows and campaigns and by now is a part of the family. My full team, including all our interns are in that group picture, and I was especially excited to see it. I’m extremely proud of all we’ve managed together in such short amount of time. The brand today is about maturing and fine-tuning. I don’t believe one sole person can do that. It’s a team effort, which includes equal feedback; from the commercial team, the production team, and the creative team. It was very important to me to have this image in our series.
Why is the focus on individuals such an important part of Y/Project campaigns?
Glenn Martens: Since my arrival, Y/Project has been all about celebrating individuality. A lot of the clothes we propose are conceived to be totally versatile. The idea is that they have to grow on your personality, we invite our customer to make a choice, you need to own the piece. “How do I feel today? How do I want to wear this garment?” - the different answers can often be found in one single item. I think this freedom, this fun factor, is what triggers people.
Detonating the Boys Club with Sofia Prantera /
THE ITALIAN STREETWEAR DESIGNER OF SILAS AND ARIES FAME TAKES ON STEREOTYPES AND SHARES RARE ARCHIVAL IMAGES FROM HER PAST
Italian-born designer Sofia Prantera proposes a new epoch for streetwear. Womenswear that defies the demagogues of fashion and archaic gender binaries, creating streetwear unbound by sex. Concerned with the ne plus ultra—the ultimate, the essence, the most extreme modes of what streetwear can be for women—Prantera challenges traditional conventions of streetwear; made by men, for men.
Whilst studying fashion at Central Saint Martins, London in the 90s, Prantera recounts the time her tutor told her streetwear was not fashion—a notion that’s of course desperately obsolete today—to which she responded "I’m Italian, streetwear is in my DNA."
Today, working alongside Fergus Purcell, the graphic-mastermind of Palace’s Penrose Tribar—the impossible triangle—the pair further elevates the lexicon of womenswear with the founding of Aries. Speaking to Edward Paginton about the essence of her work, Prantera looks towards a time when the spectrums of gender will be time immemorial.
What attracted you to move to London to study? The magazines you read?
When I first came, it was about that. Very soon after I became part of the whole skate world, which was almost by mistake but not completely. I ended up in that subculture and that was more of what I became.
There was always the clash of high fashion. I was interested in designers like Vivienne Westwood, Body Map, and Ray Petri, all of that. But I was also interested in the strength that came from skate wear. By the time I started getting into fashion, all the high fashion just wasn’t important anymore. That’s why I became attracted to skate culture because that seemed to be the new rebelliousness.
When you started Aries in 2011, the idea of streetwear was still like this "dirty" word. How did you differentiate yourself from this?
It was, yes. I’d lived through the demise of streetwear the first time round and I’ve always been into streetwear. When Ferg and I decided to start Aries, there was a side of it that was quite dressy. We also decided it should be a vehicle for doing whatever we wanted to do. The first collection—which came in 2010—was this weird mix of sprinter t-shirts we did on old Gildans, because I really like that sort of heavy t-shirt look. We thought, "let’s just buy some Gildans," and we left the label on it and printed on top of it. Then we had silk dresses, jewelry, and jeans—a mismatch of things.
When we showed it in Paris, no one really got it. It was a disaster. People didn’t get that it was unisex. Ferg and I, we both wanted the same t-shirts, so why make a men’s t-shirt and a women’s t-shirt? We didn’t see a point in differentiating between the two.
Aries, as a label, is not about being overtly sexual, and that seems particularly important to your ethos. Am I right?
I don’t mind things that are overtly sexual, but I think there’s a way of doing it that appeals to me and a way that it doesn’t. It’s about the power. Who holds the power? In a way, I think it’s important to me to show women feeling strong.
I think in high fashion, women are quite strong. There are amazing fashion photographers who portray women in interesting ways and interesting images. I always felt more upset by the way women were portrayed in streetwear. At the time, it just seemed to be objectifying women. It was like "ok there’s the man who’s the skater and the woman is the one sitting by." There was a sort of cheerleading element to it that I really didn’t like. It was like, "this is the version for you that is tight and pink." Looking back, that really did upset me.
Read the full interview by Edward Paginton HERE
John Galliano On Going Back To His Roots /
Here's what happened when John Galliano returned to his old stomping ground
'John Galliano briefly boards the number 12 to Oxford Circus, and a passenger’s jaw literally drops. With his otherworldly air, the elusive Maison Maison Margiela designer is the last person you’d expect to see at an Elephant and Castle bus stop on a rainy afternoon. '
'On our way to the shoot, he’s been watching his formative years pass by from the car window. “I don’t remember any of these little things. It’s completely changed, hasn’t it?” The Heygate Street bus stop was young Galliano’s portal to the escapism of the West End as a teenager growing up in southeast London in the 1970s.'
'Galliano was six when his family relocated from sunny Gibraltar to southeast London, and the multicultural melting pot would forge the foundation for his sensory view of fashion. Since he started interpreting Maison Margiela’s trademark deconstruction in 2015, his collections have reflected a make-do-and-mend attitude close to his early fashion efforts. “To make yourself look original you customised things. That’s a very south London thing,” he explains.'
As a Central Saint Martins student in the early 1980s, he moved to Mornington Crescent, got into Bodymap and Boy George, hung out with Steve Strange and Rusty Egan, and went clubbing at Embassy and Taboo. “I graduated in 1984, the Thatcher years – your back up against the wall, no grants. You became really creative with the means you had. That was the period when all that deconstruction was actually happening for real in London, but we didn’t know."
'Perched on the bus-stop bench in his beret and furry Prada moccasins, he throws a Tesco plastic bag over his arm as if it were an evening purse. It’s the innate sense of appropriation that’s followed Galliano through four decades in fashion. Proposing a “new glamour”, his latest haute couture collection for Maison Margiela glamorised the unglamorous – an old men’s coat, a cardboard box. “Elephant and Castle is really glamorous,” he insists. “Underneath one of the subways was a Wimpy, with the ketchup in a plastic tomato. When you had pocket money you’d go for a Wimpy and chips.” Providing, of course, you hadn’t spent it on a night out in Soho.'
Read the full interview by Anders Christian Madsen HERE