The British Fashion Council announces its NEWGEN award recipients and Donatella spills the tea in a new podcast
In a week where even the Kardashians needed to flog their hand-me-downs, the endless slam of fashion took zero prisoners. Vetements baptised the new fashion season – SS22 – with a 129-piece collection that looked as though Keanu Reeves had taken a hit of Toxic Waste, not a red pill, during The Matrix. Think floor skimming trenches, neon teletext prints, and razor-sharp eyewear.
Otherwise, and quite fittingly, a virtual Gucci bag sold for more than the IRL version at $4,115 while Kim Jong-un cracked down on “decadent” mullets and skinny jeans. Perhaps more dystopian, however, was the announcement that the legendary Sex and The City costume designer, Patricia Field, would not be making a return for the reboot because she’d rather do Emily in Paris. Elsewhere, Thebe Magugu was announced as Pitti Uomo’s guest designer and Martine Rose designed a fan shirt for the Euros, which is a football competition, apparently.
Flick through the gallery below to see what else may have passed you by this week.
THE GmbH BOYS GET A NEW GIG
Serhat Isik and Benjamin Huseby, the design duo behind Berlin label GmbH, have been appointed co-creative directors of Trussardi. Over the past few years, Isik and Huseby have pushed the envelope when it comes to conscious, inclusive, and sexy design. Their subversive tailoring and body-conscious designs revolve around the notion of community – be it migrants, the underground club scene, or the queer community. And while this is seemingly at odds with the preppy connotations of Trussardi, the Milanese label are keen to hone in on GmbH’s “sharp and contemporary creative vision founded in these values”. While they will continue to man the ship at GmbH, Isik and Huseby’s debut collection with Trussardi will come during the autumn/winter 2022 season, which is closer than it sounds – we’re already careening into SS22.
DONATELLA SPILLS IN A NEW PODCAST
Sitting alongside Fedez and Luis Sal, an unusually loose-lipped Donatella Versace took a trip down memory lane on the Italian podcast, Muschio Selvaggio, this week. There, she spoke about pissing off Hugh Grant, the time Grimes performed in her hotel suite with Elon Musk, and the whole Blue-Blur scandal. She let spill on the competition between fashion houses, that J.Lo jungle dress, and her most cherished moments with Tupac, Biggie, and Prince. Throughout the one hour episode, Donatella (humbly) reminds us just how pioneering Versace has been within fashion history – retelling the stories of how the label inaugurated celebrity and musicians into its world and how she persuaded Gianni to let the, then teenage, supermodels walk his shows. Watch the episode, complete with subtitles, on YouTube here.
DIOR UNVEILS ITS MENS RESORT COLLECTION
Kim Jones unveiled his resort 2022 collection for Dior this week – an autumnal hued, sporty offering, full of loose cut tailoring, cheetah print knits, and slack bomber-style jackets. “Obviously, the customer will recognise and be comfortable in the Dior shapes, but we wanted to play with proportions a bit and look at a way of making tailoring feel less formal, but still really relevant,” Jones said in a statement. Rifling through former creative director Marc Bohan’s tenure at the label, Jones continued his determined reinvention of house codes: Bohan’s Dior Oblique pattern crops up throughout as does his heart-shaped “CD” motif, which gets an embroidered update.
MATCHESFASHION MAKES A PLEDGE TO BLACK FASHION
The luxury e-tailer, MatchesFashion, is the first British company to join the 15% Pledge, a non-profit organisation which calls on companies to give Black-owned businesses at least 15 per cent of their shelf space (a number that roughly equates to the percentage of the US population that is Black). Going forward, Matches has also promised a 15 per cent benchmark in the representation of Black people across the business, including creatives and freelancers. As it stands, Matches are working with just 3 per cent Black owned fashion labels but they have until 2026 to meet the new standard. Read more about the initiative here.
VANS COULD PAY YOUR COLLEGE FEES
Vans have just partnered with the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) for a new scholarship to support Black college students in the US. Dubbed The Creative Sole Scholarship, 50 students will receive funding, with an extra 5k for every year they stay in college. "Vans' commitment to tackle racism while ensuring diversity and inclusion become a mainstay across communities and industries is an essential step in the fight against institutional racism,” says Yumeka Rushing, the chief strategy officer at NAACP. “We look forward to a sustained partnership that brings about change for the Black community”. Applications are now open – for full eligibility details, click here.
MARTINE ROSE IS GETTING A ROUND IN
Silent groups of old men, the odd hacking cough, lemony urinals, and piddle stained swirly carpets – the Brits are truly in bondage to “the pub”. And given that we can all sit inside one now, there is no better time for Martine Rose to revive her boozer-indebted, pint parodying prints. While the cult pieces first cropped up in 2013, they later made a return in 2018 for Martine’s 10-year anniversary – which a fashion person is just as likely to bore you to death over as your friend’s boyfriend will do about his craft beer subscription. Now, having just designed England’s Euro 2020 fan shirt, Martine lifts her glass once more, offering up beer-mat prints on shirts, tracksuits, and clingy tops. Check them out here.
YEEZY GAP HAS A LAUNCH DATE ...
… finally. Kanye’s much anticipated collaboration with GAP is set to go live at the end of June, meaning hypebeasts and Monica Geller wannabes have under a month to prepare for, what is sure to be, a sellout drop. Having first announced the collaboration last year, the GAP-Yeezy deal is reportedly a 10-year agreement, including pieces across mens, womens, and kids, at accessible price points. Products will be introduced to IRL and URL stores through various rollout “expressions”, but it’s probably a good idea to start refreshing the site now – just so you’re first in line.
INCREDIBLY RICH MAN MAKES MORE MONEY
This week Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH, took one of his Louis Vuitton trunks and whacked Jeff Bezos down a few rungs as he assumed the title of world’s richest man – leaving wee Elon Musk in a paltry third place. With a cool $186 billion to his name, Arnault now owns an incomprehensible level of wealth, having seen a rise of $110 billion in just 14 months (pandemic? What pandemic?) Lend us a tenner, Bernard?
WANNA SMELL LIKE KIKO KOSTADINOV?
Branching out from his Asics empire, London designer Kiko Kostadinov has launched his first fragrance in collaboration with Tokyo based perfumier Retaw. KK.001, as it has been anointed, is a unisex, solid perfume – meaning it’s rubbed directly onto the skin rather than spritzed. According to the brand, it’s a “bright and clear” smell, infusing cedarwood and sandalwood with heavier notes of leather, vetiver, and musk. Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, the solid perfume defies the category standard of sexy glass bottles, packaged in a transparent plastic pouch. Take a look here.
IMVU TAKES THE CATWALK TO THE METAVERSE
Mowalola, Gypsy Sport, Collina Strada, and Mimi Wade all took to the social networking site IMVU yesterday (May 27) to show their latest collections. “Fashion is at the epicentre of why people create avatars and connect with others on IMVU,” says Lindsay Anne Aamodt, the site’s senior director of marketing. “Part of that is because dressing up an avatar in a digital space gives people access to anything that they want to look like, and it’s hard to do that in the real world.” Users of IMVU can now buy the designer collections to dress their avatars in the looks they saw on the virtual runway – check out the show here.
TRACEE ELLIS ROSS FRONTS A PYER MOSS CAMPAIGN
Snapping her fingers and sitting feet up on an office table, Tracee Ellis Ross is Pyer Moss’ new no-bullshit employee. In Kerby Jean-Raymond’s new campaign, titled Production and Persuasion, the actor flits between characters while trying to secure the brand a production hub. It’s the third film in the brand’s Always Sold Out trilogy which has previously featured poems from Evan Williams and Marika Brown. The trilogy follows a standout year for the brand as Jean-Raymond preps for his couture debut and a return to New York Fashion Week, all fresh off his CFDA Fashion Award win.
AUNÉ HAS ITS FIRST POP UP
Alongside its trademark, Beyoncé-approved, figure forming slips and mesh bodysuits, emerging retailer Auné will be flogging one-off pieces from independent designers and vintage suppliers, at its first IRL store in Shoreditch from today until June 2. Featuring the sexy, sinuous knitwear of Karoline Vitto, the Westwood-esque corsets of Eve Corsets, the enveloping pleats of Robert Wunn, and off-kilter cool of Kelper, Auné’s pop up opens from 10 am till 6 pm at Studio 4, 31 New Inn Yard, Shoreditch, EC2A 3EY.
THE BRITISH FASHION COUNCIL ANNOUNCES ITS 2021 NEWGEN CLASS
The British Fashion Council has announced the next round of NEWGEN award recipients, inducing Ahluwalia, Art School, Bianca Saunders, Conner Ives, Feben, Nensi Dojaka, Richard Quinn, Saul Nash, Stefan Cooke, Supriya Lele, and Yuhan Wang. Alongside mentoring support, all designers will be awarded a financial bursary to support the showcasing of their new collections, with a slot reserved on the fashion week schedule. Explore the recipients here.
VIRGIL DROPS HIS SECOND LOUIS VUITTON X NBA LINE
Virgil Abloh is pining over the 90s again, dropping his second NBA collection as inspired by the era’s iconic basketball looks. The capsule centres on the three arenas of sports drip – travel, game, and press conference. That means comfy, LV festooned, hoodies and quilted trousers for the plane, loose blousons and basketball shorts for the court, and a smattering of boxy tailoring for post-game interviews. The collection is available online now.