Vivienne Westwood is reviving her iconic kilts and Celine does Disney
The fashion world broke new ground this week as the megalith houses of Gucci and Balenciaga presented a surprise “mutual contamination” full of glitter-festooned, square-shouldered, logo-manic designs. It was like if fashion was to have a royal wedding, only with less drama and better dresses. Though “the hacking” had pundits divided between those downright obsessed and those simply let down, it was, to quote Balenciaga’s Demna Gvasalia, “so very fashion and fierce”.
It wasn’t all good news this week though. We were blighted with some truly cursed looks courtesy of the Canadian Olympic team and an NFT hoodie, which went for £19,000 – though that paled in comparison to the $1 million asking price for these OG yeezy sneakers. Otherwise, the light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel began to glint a little brighter, as Anna Wintour revealed the Met Ball would be making an all-American return and Browns presented two monologues in tribute to the post-pandemic soirée.
Have a click through the gallery to see what else was going on this week:
AHLUWALIA DEBUTS WOMENSWEAR USING GANNI DEADSTOCK
Fresh from winning the Queen Elizabeth II award, Priya Ahluwalia has launched her first womenswear collection today, with a little help from Copenhagen stalwart Ganni. The collaboration, which sees Ahluwalia upcycle Ganni’s deadstock fabrics into vibrant figure-hugging slips and mini-dresses, has been in the works for over a year. “Priya came in and really gave it all a new life. When we saw her first drawings, we knew it was going to be huge,” Ganni’s CEO Nicolaj Reffstrup says.
It may seem an unlikely pairing – Ahluwalia is known for her casual mens pieces and Ganni for its off-duty glam – but both labels hold sustainability as core to their ethos. And recently, it’s seemed as if the Copenhagen label has zoned in on London’s hottest emerging talent, commissioning Westminster grad Halina Edwards to dress its Kings Road flagship with her trademark, homespun flag designs taken from the designer's Flags About Home project. Ahluwalia’s collection will be available in Ganni stores worldwide and online from April 23, plus there’s a second Ganni x Ahluwalia in the works for later this year. In the meantime, Ahluawalia has officially announced that she will be including womenswear into her namesake London brand, though exact details are TBC.
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD RESURRECTS HER ICONIC KILTS
A true Scot wears their kilt with nothing underneath and Vivienne Westwood did the same when she collected her MBE in 2006, splaying her skirt akimbo and flashing photographers with what lay beneath. It’s a level of provocation that we have come to know and love from the Grande Dame of British fashion. And the brand’s subversive take on the kilt, which is being reissued at select flagship boutiques in Paris, Milan, New York and Los Angeles, is a prime example of Westwood’s urge to prod and poke at the edges of conformity. Back in the 70s the brand would dress kilts over bondage suits, in the 80s it took to all over tartan looks in super-minis and knee-length iterations, and in the 90s it created its own tartan – the MacAndreas – in honour of Westwood’s longtime love and co-creative Andreas Kronthaler. “It’s a heroic image,” Westwood says, “the kilt flying and the idea of climbing mountains in this garb with the wind blowing behind you. They have all got stories, these fabrics”. Click here to see more, or visit one of the flagships to get the wind a-blowing for yourself.
CELINE GOES FURTHER INTO THE BOURGEOISE FAIRY TALE
For his AW21 womenswear offering, Hedi Slimane took us back to the gardens of Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, where the designer presented his menswear collection just a few months ago. The collection was said to straddle the line between reality and fantasy as models stropped about the grounds in hoodies, baseball caps, and sloaney outerwear, cut through with the solid, diamond-encrusted hoop-skirts and crystallised sheer slips. It was as if a bourgeois teen had stormed away from her (stately) family home, dreaming of what it must be like to be like, actually rich. It was a “daydream of youth interrupted” – all the childlike fantasies which had been mired by a year of lockdown. As such, the show closed in a sequence presumably cooked up by Disney corp, a model standing beside a deer, gazing on as fireworks rain over the perfectly trimmed gardens of the baroque chateau.
Courtesy of VansVANS IS GIVING BACK
In a week when fashion put aside its differences to come together – be it with Balucci or Prada, who made one of its own facilities available to Valentino following a fire at the latter’s shoe factory – the industry also looked outwards. In the US, Vans made a surprise donation to the Los Angeles School of Global Studies, gifting its entire cohort of students with a laptop. The skate brand partnered with non-profit EduCare on the rollout of over 300 Chromebooks, which they hope will close the gap on the digital poverty line which many of the school’s students find themselves below. “Donations that go directly to the community are so important for our student population,” says principal Christian Quintero, “I am thankful that Vans could get technology to our students so that our school community can access the curriculum”. See – fashion isn’t that evil.
DIESEL SETS ITS SIGHTS ON MILAN FASHION WEEK
The British population will have you believe that come June 21, which marks the final easing of lockdown and the long awaited opening of clubs, that unhappiness and worry will simply cease to exist. But June 21 is a Monday and we’ll have to work the next day, so – . Anyway, Glenn Martens, the creative director of Y/Project and now Diesel, has chosen the contentious date to unveil his debut collection for Diesel. The co-ed event will showcase the brand's SS22 collection, which is “a major step of Martens’ role in overseeing the brand’s creative identity, design, and communications,” added Diesel.
DO GOOD, GET MONEY
Alongside Dazed Editor-in-Chief Ib Kamara, and model-activist Munroe Bergdorf, the British Fashion Council announced the inaugural Changemakers Prize, an annual award which will honour those provoking positive change within the fashion industry. The entrance categories cover Environment, People or Craftsmanship, and Community. Out of nine nominees, three respective winners will be granted £5,000 as well as mentorship from Swarovski and the BFC. The news comes as the BFC last week announced the launch of the Student Fabric Initiative, which will see more than 20 brands donate surplus fabrics to fashion students. Applications for the Changemakers Prize are open now.
NICHOLAS DALEY EARNS HIS FASHION BLACK BELT
This week, London’s Nicholas Daley unveiled his AW21 collection, indebted to the designer’s longtime affinity with martial arts. The offering gave us loose fitting shibori dyed kimono-style two pieces, shaolin jackets, and his trademark chunky knits, all executed with Daley’s deft artisanal handiwork. This season put forth a warm, textural smattering of pieces, bolstered by deep corduroys, grainy flannels, and quilted fabric blocks. Taekwondo stars Christian McNeil and Lutalo Muhammad stand under the lookbook’s amber studio lights, throwing a host of legit-looking martial arts poses, seasoning the somewhat cosy-looking collection with a harder, fighting spirit.
CORONAVIRUS? DON’T KNOW HER!
Seemingly awoken from her AW21 fairytale fantasy, Maria Grazia Chiuri has gazed deep into disco’s glitter ball for Dior’s first ever Pre-Fall womenswear collection. In a year when plenty of brands are stripping back on the seasonal grind, Chiuri has done the opposite, turning out an array of sequined hot pants, glittering boiler suits, and shin-grazing tulle skirts, across a leopard print runway in Shanghai. In attendance were superstars Zhang Ziyi and TF Boy Wang Junkai, and 1,000 other guests. And the brand was not playing – pieces went to pre-order on Dior’s China e-commerce channels, including WeChat, directly after the show.
KATE MOSS FRONTS SELF-PORTRAIT’S AW21 CAMPAIGN
Shot candidly in the Cotswolds, Kate Moss stars in London brand Self Portrait’s latest campaign, lensed by Nigel Shafran. Known for its feminine frills and trend-led accents, Self Portrait has built a name off its distinct take on pared back sophistication, likely to be spotted at media weddings or “brunch”. The brand’s founder and CSM alumnus Han Chong, said “If you ask me who optimises the Self-Portrait spirit and woman, it is, and always has been, Kate Moss. Her enormous appetite for life and her infectious sense of fun are what characterise the women I think about when I’m designing my collections – there is this sense of freedom, of effortlessness, of embracing life. It’s this attitude that inspires my work now more than ever, as the world readies itself to emerge from confinement, with a revived purpose”.
MORE MUSICAL CROCS COLLABS
Over the course of the past year, the pandemic has provoked deep and sometimes unsettling change. Crocs, for example, emerged as an unlikely style staple. Equal parts repulsed and revered, the children’s slip-ons became a sort of Tabi for the corona era. This week, the bizarro clog got Rico Nasty’s, Beabadoobee’s, and Victor Ma’s seal of approval, as they launched their own take on the Croc – a summer sandal iteration of the traditional club-shaped design. For Nasty, who first bought a pair of clogs when working at Popeye’s, it’s been a long time coming. “Crocs and a blanket, that’s all I ever ask for when I get off stage,” the rapper says. Shop the drop here.
MCQUEEN’S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG
In its biggest accessory launch of the season, Alexander McQueen is dropping its new Curve Bag next week on the 22 April. The style gives a BDSM twist on the time-worn bucket bag with a criss-cross detail reminiscent of the iconic Alexander McQueen harness. The style can be worn cross body or over-the-shoulder but probably looks most chic clutched in hand with any of the voluminous shoulders and next-level pleating we saw across skirts, tailoring, and dresses in Sarah Burton’s SS21 collection.
AMIRI GOES DOWNTOWN FOR AW21
The LA label Amiri isn’t fussed with juice cleanses, chakra alignment, and crystal bathing. Rather, it’s the hard and fast metropolis that speaks to the brand’s founder and creative director, Mike Amiri. Alton Mason opens this season’s show on LA’s 4th Street Bridge, swaggering out in a pimped-up fur coat and ever-so-slightly flared trousers. Models swarm onto the bridge as dawn turns to dusk and the looks go from California louche in amply-cut shearling jackets and pinstripe tailoring, to bedazzled blazers, structured PVC coats, and dressy print shirts.