A Messy Review of A Messy Fashion Month
Hello and welcome to the 42nd issue of moderated, a newsletter created to dive into insights and phenomenons of the Fashion Industry. It also has a curation and summary of the most talked about last week’s events of the industry, offering further readings for more details.
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In this week’s moderated, I am giving my review of the highlights of a long and not even over fashion “month”.
But before jumping into the main article, check the last week’s recap of the Fashion Industry.
Last Week’s Recap
US Suspends Retaliatory Tariffs on UK Fashion and Textile
In late 2019, the US introduced a 25% tariff on goods including cashmere jumpers, swimwear, and anoraks. The tariffs were created due to a 16-year-long dispute about aircraft subsidies for industry rivals Airbus and Boeing between the US and the European Union. The US announced that the tariffs measures are suspended for four months, starting on March 8. Meantime, the UK Fashion & Textile Association will keep negotiating with the Department of International Trade to reach a permanent solution.
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Jil Sander Acquired by Maison Margiela Owner OTB
Although financial details of the acquisition were not shared yet, International fashion group OTB confirmed the purchase of Jil Sander. OTB, which was founded by Italian entrepreneur Renzo Rosso, already owns other brands such as Maison Margiela, Diesel, and Marni. It is still unclear if Jil Sander’s current creative directors Luke and Lucie Meier will continue their trajectory in the brand.
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Despite Pandemic, Havainas Report Record 2020 Sales
The Brazilian fashion group Alpargatas reported that its flip-flops brand Havainas did very well last year. The brand had a record net earnings of R$3.1 billion (US$547 million) in 2020. The group stated that the increase was due to the introduction of new and more modern pieces in Europe and the US, while the growth in Brazil was linked to the brand’s grocery retail channel. In Brazil, Havainas has an impressive 80% market share in grocery retail.
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Kering Group Invests in Resale Platform Vestiaire Collective
Luxury Group Kering was among the investors of the new €178 million fundraising round of the largest platform for high-end second-hand fashion pieces. The French luxury group acquired a 5% stake in the Paris-based start-up, which was valued at “over US$1 billion”. Kering’s digital chief Grégory Boutté shared in an interview:
“We recognise that this is a fundamental shift that’s happening in the way clients are relating and engaging with luxury fashion, so we don’t want to close our eyes and pretend it’s not happening.”
A Messy Review of A Messy Fashion Month
As I explained in this article two weeks ago, this fashion month was a mess in terms of dates and who was part of which fashion week. New York, London, Milan, and Paris Fashion Weeks stretched into each other's dates, expanded their “territorial” limits, and had many major brands not taking part in them. Regardless of how messy this fashion month was - and the fact that, technically, it is not even over - I will give you my review of it.
Since there is a lot to cover, I had to leave some very nice shows out of the analysis, but I did make some honourable mentions at the end of each section. So let’s dive into 2021 autumn/winter fashion weeks’ peaks.
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NEW YORK FASHION WEEK
Christian Siriano
The designer hosted one of the few physical shows of NYFW. The show started with four models in black undergarments “waking up” on mattresses and quickly dressing clothes from the rack. From cosy winter coats to his signature flashy red carpet dresses, Christian Siriano managed to keep the show’s interesting “psychedelic alternate reality” from beginning to end. The show was broadcasted live on the designer’s social media platforms and is now available on Youtube.
Zimmerman
Inspired by the Australian music program Countdown, which aired in the 70s and 80s, Nicky Zimmerman delivered a collection that just reminded us how fun things will be as soon as everything is ok. But the pandemic did have an impact on the collection. Zimmerman had its first-ever jeans, which represented fashion’s shift towards casual wear brought by the pandemic. The collection was presented from Sidney, in a live stream on the brand’s Instagram and website.
Phillip Lim
The designer delivered a collection focused on comfort and utility but inserting that into office-like tailored looks. Lim’s outfits were so playful, practical, and well-rounded, that the lack of a flashy “it looks” didn’t take points from the excellence of the overall collection. Phillip Lim 2021 autumn was presented through a lookbook.
Private Policy
To create the collection, the brand’s designers Haoran Li and Siying Qu found inspiration on the 19th-century gold rush. More specifically, the Chinese migrants who came to California from the Pearl River Delta. They partnered with the Museum of Chinese in America to find historical photos of these workers, so the designers could honour their achievements and acknowledge the xenophobia they suffered. The theme of Private Policy's collection has an obvious parallel to the current increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans. The photos revealed workers at that time wore a blend of Americana and traditional Chinese design. Based on that, the duo’s collection reflected all this, but with a spice of 21st century and some of the brand’s signature touches. AS Qu told Vogue Runway:
“When we were doing the photoshoot, someone on the team said, ‘Oh, this looks like Eastern kids in the Wild Wild West.’”
Indeed, the result was compelling and one of the most interesting presentations of NYFW. The collection was presented on NYFW’s platform Runway360. They also released all looks on social media platforms and made a compilation of Tiktoks with some of the outfits.
Gabriela Hearst
To create her collection, the designer found inspiration on Hildegard of Bingen - a writer, composer, philosopher, informal doctor, mystic, and Benedictine abbess. Hildegard was a typical Renaissance woman, except that she predated the Renaissance by about two centuries. In a conversation with Vogue, Hearst stated:
“I’m convinced that if she had been a man we’d know her name like we do Leonardo da Vinci’s.”
Actually, Hildegard sketched a Universal Man, not too different from Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, only hers was completed 300 years earlier. Hildegard was also an herbalist and in synchrony with nature, much like Gabriela Hearst herself. Her fall 2021 collection brought all these parallels with Hildegard of Bingen. The main two pillars of this ahead-of-her-time woman that appeared at Hearst’s sustainable collection were science and art. The leather and lace floral prints inspired by Hildegard’s paintings were knitted and crocheted by two not-for-profit women empowering co-ops in Uruguay and Bolivia. The show was live-streamed on the brand’s Instagram account and website.
Other Highlights of NYFW
Jason Wu and Anna Sui also got attention from the media during New York Fashion Week.
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LONDON FASHION WEEK
Simone Rocha
“Fragile rebels. It’s about being very protective and hiding the fragility—then having a flower creeping through the collection. Flowers that then kind of become the dresses.”
That’s how Simone Rocha explained to Vogue her 2021 autumn collection called Winter Roses. Her narrative included many tough but feminine pieces in perfectly crafted looks. A lovely assemble. The show was filmed in the parish church of St. John’s Hyde Park, with no audience, and released on her social media platforms.
Roksanda
Roksanda Illincic wanted to bring joy and positivity with her fall collection. For that, the designer looked back to her childhood and the memories of her grandparents' kitchen table. The soft but strong collection was perfectly finalized with a relaxing and joyful fashion film starring the Academy Award-winning Vanessa Redgrave, her daughter Joely Richardson, and granddaughter Daisy Bevan. The video entitled ‘Friday in February’ was entirely made with iPhones by the family trio. They were spending lockdown together in a beautiful country home in Surrey, which was the background of the presentation.
Emilia Wickstead
“This collection is about a woman’s life, with the audience looking into her world.”
That is how Wickstead explained her autumn 2021 collection to Vogue. Hitchcock’s mystery thriller’ Rear Widow’ was also a big inspiration for her narrative, encapsulated in the runway-like film. Fitted to the times, Wickstead focused on versatility, tailoring, comfort, and ease. Still, she did add some sparkle for the small chance of people dressing crazy when things eventually go back to normal. Emilia Wickstead prepared a collection for all scenarios and I bought into it.
Erdem
The inspiration was ballet. Erdem Moralioglu freeze-framed a dancer’s wardrobe between the stages of rehearsal and performance. He brought memories from his time working on costumes for a ballet at the Royal Opera House. The result was this exquisite 2021 fall collection. Many pieces were out of the comfort zone of the designer, which made the collection even more compelling and unusual. The collection perfectly fitted current times, due to the elevated garments with the elegance of eveningwear but tactility of lockdown comfort-wear. The show with no audience was live-streamed on the brand’s website.
Other Highlights of LFW
You can’t ignore Vivienne Westwood during a London Fashion Week, so here was her collection.
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MILAN FASHION WEEK
Fendi
Kim Jones's first women’s ready-to-wear collection for Fendi was a travel through the brand history, without being too specific about it. The references were there, but at the same time they were not, and he did add his touch to it. A lot of precedents, but there was a progression. One of the it-looks was the giant fox fur coat-dress, which was fully made of upcycled raw materials from previous pieces. A nice touch for a Maison that is constantly bashed for using real fur. It was a collection full of Fendi codes that refreshed the concept of what is a Fendi signature. The show, which had Roman ruins all over the set, was live-streamed on the brand’s social media platforms and website.
Daniel Del Core
The new face of Milan Fashion Week, Daniel Del Core label had a memorable debut in the fashion world. The designer hosted the only show with an audience of this season’s Milan Fashion Week. Del Core is a German Milan-based former Gucci employee that managed to open his own brand amid a pandemic. Impressive. For his first collection, he created a theatrical narrative with extravagant couture-inflected pieces, inspired by sci-fi, mutant glamour, fungi, mould, and bioluminescence. And it worked. Excited to see the next steps of Daniel Del Core.
Alberta Ferretti
The designer kept things realistic. She staged runway show video with no artsy visual experimentations, almost giving a taste of how it will be whenever things go back to normal. The collection itself had the same proposition. Most looks consisted of no-fuss luxurious daywear in neutral palettes and classic silhouettes. But is Alberta Ferretti without some fabulous evening dresses? So she closed her show with a series of dramatic black dresses and some golden sequins pieces.
Versace
In terms of presentation, Versace went as big as a brand can do on a digital fashion week. All that to the awaited launch of Versace’s new monogram La Greca. For the fashion film, the new monogram became a giant wooden structure that framed the runway–like show. As Vogue perfectly stated:
“Models effectively walked through monograms wearing monogram clothes, carrying monogram bags, and accessorizing with monogram jewellery.”
Besides La Greca, the collection was easy, smart, and real: a perfect post-lockdown wardrobe. However, the logomania took over the show. La Greca is a mark of Versace’s new phase as part of Capri Holdings. The strategy is to make the Italian brand become a fashion giant like Louis Vuitton or Chanel. The show definitely targeted a younger audience (who apparently loves logos and buys what Hadids wear). However, it rests the question of if the already existing audience of Versace felt represented there.
Other Highlights of MFW
Valentino, Missoni, and Moschino also had great presentations, each in its brand universe.
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PARIS FASHION WEEK
Loewe
“It’s color therapy, you know, when you wear a bright colour you feel better!’ (…) Maybe that’s what I need: a bit of colour therapy. So for me, this collection is a kind of letting go—it’s about clothing to get high on, to get off on.”
That is how Loewe’s creative director JW Anderson explained the brand’s autumn 2021 collection to Vogue. And to deliver this fun fuzzy collection, Loewe got creative once again. This time, Anderson created a Loewe newspaper with a front-page written: “Loewe Show Has Been Cancelled”. The paper contained a trail of the first chapter of Danielle Steel’s new novel. As expected, the newspaper also had pictures of the Loewe collection and was distributed to “ a million readers”, including readers of The New York Times, Le Monde, and Le Figaro. The brand also released a few videos on social media breaking down the collection from different perspectives. From the clothes to the presentation, I believe I have a favourite presentation for this fashion month.
Courrèges
Until now, Nicolas Di Felice was a behind-the-scenes designer, having worked at brands such as Christian Dior, Balenciaga, and Louis Vuitton. But during this Paris Fashion, Di Felice made his debut as creative director of iconic fashion house Courrèges. The designer grew in his career due to his knack for research and command of technique, which makes him perfect for a heritage brand whose signature, as he described, is “radical simplicity”.
I am a big fan of Courrèges’s heritage and I was waiting for a great designer to bring the strength of the label back. There was always potential there, and Di Felice made it come to life. He remodelled iconic trapeze dresses to be more comfortable and Vinyl was redesigned in a more eco-friendly way with bio-based polyurethane and a certified organic cotton base. It was a great taste rebirth of André Courrèges’s 60s futurism framed by a Di Felice’s child-of-the-90s eyes. The white-void aesthetic show was live-streamed on the brand’s social media platforms and had no live audience. It won’t be easy to bring Courrèges back, but now it finally feels the label is on the right path.
Chanel
The Grand Palais is closed for renovations until 2024, so Chanel had to find a new place to have its fashion shows…finally! The brand’s creative director Virginie Viard chose the legendary Left Bank nightclub, Chez Castel, as the new venue. The place is smaller and more intimate. A great change of air. The place is also a club that never went out of fashion since it opened in the 60s and hosted generations of party animals, from Francoise Hardy to Mick Jagger. The collection was inspired by the “ski spirit”.
Jil Sander
Jil Sander was recently sold to the OTB group, which owns labels like Maison Margiela and Marni. Regardless of the future of the brand, for the creative directors Lucie and Luke Meier, it was business as usual. But we did get a hint from the choice of place to shoot the collection - an hôtel particulier in Le Marais currently “under construction.”
The collection had a purist aesthetic with a hint of boldness. There was also a clinical tone. The Meiers even revealed that the colour of gloves and trousers had a hospital and healthcare influence on it. Very fitting for these times I guess. But this strange aspect was what made the collection stand out. Jil Sander’s autumn 2021 collection also gave a simple and effective wardrobe that can easily navigate through seasons. If I had to point out one fault of the collection, it would be the video. You can watch it here, but I preferred to give you some pictures from the lookbook because the video doesn’t do the collection justice.
Acne Studios
Creative director Jonny Johansson translated his calm and comforting lockdown experience into Acne studios' 2021 autumn collection. It was all about duvet dressing, but with a twist – and a lot of pastel colours. Towards the end, reality hit us: a heavy version of weddings and funerals that were limited due to gathering restrictions. For Johansson, next autumn we will still be spending our days in cosy comfort wear. As much as I love the collection, I sure hope he is wrong.
Schiaparelli
Another season, another Schiaparelli collection by Roseberry worthy of the label’s heritage. While materials and silhouettes are not out of this world, the same cannot be said for the embellishments. Gold is everywhere and if expected a button, you get an eye. There were also noses, ears, breasts with nipples pierced, which were all coloured in gold and moulded in leather, or quilted in wool crepe. Once again, Schiaparelli delivered pieces of art by not playing save. Is Roseberry the provocateur designer of our time?
Other Highlights of PFW
Many others in fact. Christian Dior, Isabel Marant, and Chloé are classics always worth taking a look at. Givenchy, Paco Rabanne, and Altuzarra had memorable collections. Then Patou and Calvin Luo surprised with gorgeous pieces. Ah, and Balmain did a show at the Wings of a plane. Since we are not using planes anyway, I kind of loved it.
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