“… The two girls grew up at the edge of the ocean and knew it was paradise, and better than Eden, which was only a garden…” – Eve Babitz –
‘Eden’ is the name of SIS by Spijkers en Spijkers’ brand new collection presented at the Gashouder on Friday night. A collection full of passion, leering and seductive giving the audience a taste of life without limits. Clothes designed for the love ones, invisible to those who don’t know love and inspired by stories about Paradise. For decisive women who like to be challenged to investigate, experience and be loved endlessly.
As with every collection Truus and Riet once again picked a muse. They found their free loving rebel in party-girl, style icon and artist Eve Babitz.
How this all translated into wearable womenswear looks, you wonder? Well, love was written all over the daring, sometimes revealing fabrics. Models paraded around in airy dresses, blouses and skirts made of silks and viscose crepes. Elegant designs mixed with sportive touches. Just as jackets, bombers and shorts added some contrast to the Love-themed collection. Floral prints and stripes met each other halfway. Beige suede pants and a leave printed green shirt formed a rather casual outing. As an off shoulder airy printed dress added some seductive sassiness. Richly decorated T-shirts and sweaters were given an admirable designer touch and the graphic SIS details were unmistakable.
If we ever have to deal with a Paradise dresscode, we know who to turn to. We don’t just like this, we LOVE it!
Any customer of Julliëtte Heijnen can be rest assured he’ll be looking as original as can be. It’s hard to even give the collection a general description, since all twelve menswear looks were so diverse. With the search for new silhouettes and interdisciplinary presentations as a starting point Heijnen’s male models sported XL T-shirts and sweaters with black linings, holographic prints (in a lovely color palette), raincoats, mesh tops, 7/8 pants and macramé tops worn as dresses. Accessories in the form of pompoms, twisted scarfs, a fishnet mask, double buns and a knitted beanie topped it off. Outfits and styling exercises you can hardly describe in words, you just need to see.
Aaand fashion week is officially started! Illustrator, artist and fashion designer Karim Adduchi (1988, Imzouren, Marokko) opened a fashion filled week with his ‘She lives behind the courtyard door’- collection. Ignoring trends and other fashion codes Adduchi took us to a place where tradition and mystic determine everything. His designs represented hidden beauty and strength, as colors and patterns also referred to Adduchi’s Moroccan roots, his dreams and barriers. Lots of focus on detail, which is much appreciated after years and years of minimalism. Carpets, both fresh from the loom and antique, are draped and sculpted, combined and mixed, their heavy wool textures contrasted by the occasional shimmer of elaborate modern details. All pieces are handmade and unique; the carpets hand-loomed in Morocco, the seams hand-stitched by Adduchi. Drawing inspiration from his own heritage, reconstructing it and using this history to tell us about courtyards and the women living in them. Adduchi invited us to create our own story, handing us the material to dream and to follow him behind the courtyard door. Adduchi is a storyteller, and fashion is his way of communicating without having to speak. Oh well, enough words, just take a look at the image gallery above and you get an idea.
As much as it was a grande celebration of fashion outside the shows (have you seen our Paris streetstyle images yet?), we of course arrived in the city of love to soak up all of the latest designer collections. After having witnessed all the highs and the lows it is now time to recap. And as far as we can tell SS2017 is going to be a summer of practical style. Extra pockets, tiny bags that come in handy, boiler suits and trenchcoats; items that clearly serve a certain cause, make up for some of the biggest trends. How designers translated that into stylish yet effortless summer wear? You’re about to find out in our 7 SS2017 menswear trends recap.
One for your keys, one for your phone, one for your cash money, one for your notebook and one that fits your lip gloss; fact is you can never have enough extra pockets. You know it and Givenchy, Hermes and Moncler Gamme Bleu definitely know it. Next summer we love them big and up front. Who needs a handbag anymore?
Also seen at Dries van Noten and Louis Vuitton
Utilitarian or not; boiler suits are a thang for next year. No more outfit stress with this onepiece; this fashion item will take you anywhere you need to go. From grocery shopping to bar hopping. Balenciaga, Hermes and Louis Vuitton already showed you how. Shaggy or chic; hand in your pockets and just give it a try! Again: enough pockets, so leave your man bag at home.
Also seen at Walter van Beirendonck
Fendi, Balmain, Balenciaga are all joining a good game of power dressing for SS2017. Suit jackets you can live in with shoulders that reach the sky and overcoats that easily fit your partner in as well. We have to admit Balenciaga gave us some Frankenstein creeps at first, but after that oversize red velvet suit (that made us crave some red velvet cake) we got a hang of it. From tight tanktops to XL suits; next summer is all about extremes.
Streetwise and super safe; if you got your game on, you wear your tiny shoulder bag on your chest. The boys in the hood have been doing it for years and now Givenchy, Moncler Gamme Bleu and Louis Vuitton are picking it up too. Just make sure you have a casual flow to match your it bag and you’ll go from tourist freak to ghetto chic.
The trenchcoat. It’s the only coat you’d wanna wear during summertime. Of course keeping notice you prefer not wearing any coat in summer at all. It’s flattering, practical and timeless. And even though the trenchcoat has never really been gone, designers (the likes of Dior, Dries van Noten, Louis Vuitton are bringing back this trend big time now. In classic camel or exotically printed; the trench effect in full swing.
Also seen at Balmain, CDG, Margiela
Blending in is hot this season and it will still be one year from now. That is, if we follow up on Givenchy and Dries van Noten’s style advice. Both brands are bringing camouflage prints back to the table. Yet, the camo has certainly received an update. Mixed with other prints in the same color palette is the way to wear this army (war?) inspired print in twelve months. A camouflage mix, so to speak.
What are they wearing during the international fashion weeks? A Raf Simons jacket, that vintage YSL or their latest Comme des Garcons suit? During the fashion weeks we refresh our streetwear posts regularly. We don’t judge, we’re not the fashion-police, we just enjoy fashion and your own personal style. Next stop: Paris Menswear Fashion Week.
The models zoomed through Dior Homme’s suspended roller-coaster set so swiftly that one would think they were on skateboards. Just when one thought athletic influences were running out of breath, Dior Homme gave them a second wind: from the stripes running over the sleeves of two-button jackets to the tracksuit chevrons painted with a roller onto suit and coat sleeves.
Designer Kris Van Assche also blended in references to punk, Goth and New Wave. Pants had utility pockets, D-rings or side stripes and assumed various guises: from skinny jeans to wide raver styles.
The designer also gave military bombers and blouses fresh verve, adding chevrons here, a striped polo collar there. Sleek trench coats came with the sleeves hacked off, or sprouting a parka tail with drawstrings.
An imagined view from Kelmscott Manor – the country home of writer William Morris – on arts and crafts today was the theme of Dries van Notens SS2017 collection. That translated into romantic visuals based on photo prints of floral tapestry and tonal patchworks.
Belted trenchcoats and high-waisted full-length pants were familiar categories but still compelling ones. There was a whiff of soft military, too, as the prints gradually grew into camouflage patterns, as seen on cropped carrot pants and utility jackets.
Van Noten was at his best when he played with hybrid looks: Rendering tank tops as knitted sweaters minus the sleeves, or mixing panels of tapestry prints with metallic technical fabrics to produce sporty-cool jackets.
The Givenchy menswear collection for SS2017 was a parade of military parkas in greenback prints that approximated camouflage. But Riccardo Tisci was thinking of something else: Spirituality, seeing with your third eye”, he told WWD. “Money sometimes makes us forget that.”
Tisci rigged his models for some kind of journey, backpacks laden with blankets — or split into three laptop-sized pouches attached to a harness.
The pants, as loose and flowing as sweat pants and often licked with stripes, gave the collection an athletic aspect — as did the chunky, graphic hiking sneakers. While the checkerboard patterns skewed a bit close to Louis Vuitton’s Damier check, the reference was games.
Rick Owens goes soft next spring. He carried over his big pants from last fall, also continuing with bloblike drapes and whorled volumes. Indeed, his opening looks in gauzy gray fabrics approximated the gargantuan folds of blubber of this season’s mascot — a walrus.
Yet there was something regal about the cone-shaped silhouettes and the elaborate, sashlike folds worked into T-shirts and tops.
As the show progressed, Owens capped his pyramid-shaped pants with tiny, taut bomber jackets and leather blousons that stopped at the ribcage.
Owens also added shiny embroideries with radiant lines, like depictions of the Sacred Heart, to loose black robes and sculpted tuxedo jackets. It’s a descriptor coming up more frequently as the Paris season picks up steam. Owens’ priestly take on black-tie was certainly divine.
Our own fashiondictionary Real Highlander There are only a few. Famous ones are Sonia Rykiel, Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani and Vivienne Westwood. They're around for at least 75 years and have designed over 750 different collections. The rumour goes they survive by sucking blood of male virgins to revitalize in between seasons.