Natasha Zinko is one of just a few designers still imagining a post-societal future. (Even Demna swapped his boggy dunes for the sun-soaked hills of Los Angeles last December.) These dark ruminations have seen the designer travel from monster-torn metropolises to the vast unknown of space, which is where she continued to roam with her … Read more
In these uncertain times, Ottolinger’s designers Cosima Gadient and Christa Bösch figure the best strategy is to “just buckle up and stay focused.” “We have to be sharper where we might have been looser before, be leaner and more precise,” they said during a video interview. To that end, for resort they kept everything close … Read more
Isabel Marant has been the reigning queen of Parisian boho since she launched her brand some 30 years ago. For spring, she’s suggesting a revival complete with tassels, crochet, fringed scarves, and chunky claw pendants. Nothing too literal, though. She’s calling her latest take “modernized Marrakesh.” “It’s about bringing back a wardrobe that’s not too … Read more
A new entry on the couture calendar, Bahareh Ardakani came to Paris by way of Tehran, where she was born, but mainly Sweden, where her family moved before her first birthday. A mathematician and design engineer by training, she switched course to fulfill a dream of becoming a fashion designer, picking up a gemology degree … Read more
“It can be dangerous to build a brand around cultural identity.” Kartik Kumra was in a reflective mood at a showroom appointment following his runway debut at Paris Fashion Week. Kumra was an economics major at the University of Pennsylvania when he launched Kartik Research, then named Karu Research, in 2020. The idea then was … Read more
It has been 15 years since David Koma launched his namesake label, an impressive milestone, which has left the designer yearning for success of a different kind. “I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved,” he said, leafing through racks of clothing in his east London studio. “But I’m at a point where I just want … Read more
Monsieur Yves Saint Laurent was a designer who not only flou-ed with the best of them, he was the best of them. And in the ever fascinating way that Anthony Vaccarello continues to intuit the raison d’etre of the house—dress women, do it chicly, and sometimes bring a somewhat (and very YSL) eroticized edge to … Read more
By my reckoning, of all the names that have guest-designed Jean Paul Gaultier collections since the project started mid-pandemic, Nicolas Di Felice is the greenest. In fact, his debut at Courrèges happened the same year that this Gaultier collaborations concept got off the ground—2021. But if Di Felice has less runway experience than predecessors like … Read more
What makes the ANDAM prize special, beyond the prize money? It’s the only one that brings all the fashion actors together. Everyone’s invested in the outcome. ANDAM’s philosophy is really about France: formalizing a structure, collaborating with French savoir-faire, shining a light on things that are made in France, which is different from other prizes. … Read more
The namesake in Ernest W. Baker, designer Reid Baker’s grandfather, recently passed away. He was 95. This collection by Baker and Inês Amorim was designed as an homage, and created with the intention of both untangling their grief while, perhaps inadvertently, charting a path forward. That is the unspoken effect of living life based on … Read more
