It may be a bit too early to spot solid trends and micro-trends in the menswear collections for the next Autumnal season as, after London's shows and Florence's Pitti, there are still the Milan and Paris runways to go. Yet there were here and there moments in which specific moods and trends have started to emerge.
While rumours were surfacing about Tom Ford maybe returning to Gucci after the recent departure of Creative Director Frida Giannini, the designer was presenting in London to press and buyers his Autumn/Winter 2015-16 menswear collection.
The slim silhouettes, narrow hips and skinny legs, the rugged shearling coats and the Op Art black-and-white patterned evening silk or velvet jackets (think vintage Brioni meets Vasarely) pointed towards the Sixties, calling to mind fashion photographer Thomas (David Hemmings) incarnating the spirit of the Swinging London in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow up. Though Ford added a sporty edge here and there with trainers to make the collection more appealing to younger consumers, the Blow up mood remained.
At Opening Ceremony the photographic connection was more evident: the yellow on beige or black on charcoal squares on sleeveless tabard-like tops may have looked like references to Malevich, but, looking at the rest of the collection, it became clearer that those perfect geometries may have actually been references to something else such as Polaroid-evoking squares.
Though motocross and skate culture were the main inspirations, to avoid falling into the usual sporty and casual themes/moods, the Opening Ceremony duo came up with collages of BMX/skate photographs from Spike Jonze's archive (from 1985 to 2005, including stills from the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" video), adding pullovers with colourful stripes taken from Kodak film packages (logo included as this is supposed to be an authorised capsule collection with Kodak), matched with solid beige or black trousers and coats. Further references to photographs were included in the grainy jacquard images from black and white films enlarged on a top, or reproduced as strips on trousers and coats and showing Spike Jonze's pics of the Sonic Youth.
Agi & Sam love colourful prints, and, for the next Autumnal season, they literally explored them from a child's point of view. Inspiration for this collection arrived indeed when Agi Mdumulla's mother showed him drawings he had done for a fashion collection (that he had called "The Coolman Collection") when he was 4 years old.
Struck by the playfulness of his drawings the duo went down the childish path exploring their primary schools and chatting with children about clothes, asking them to reconstruct jackets using Velcro and vandalise VHS covers and prescription drug packaging to come up with their own patchworks.
The results of such experiments were unexpected splashes of paint, fun and messy doodles, knitwear in primary colours (made in collaboration with the Jaeger brand), Lego masks (courtesy of make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench), interchangeable Velcro elements and panels that can be removed and reapplied, and a softer silhouette with ample shoulders and wider trousers.
Their sense of playfulness at times had a Mondrian-like effect that seemed borrowed from the Blow up posters, especially when blocks and rectangles of colours were scattered on roomy coats or when pockets and patches were applied as geometrical figures on jackets and sweaters.
So are photographic references a micro-trend? Maybe it's too early to say it for sure, but we'd better keep our eyes open for further photography-linked elements at the menswear shows in Milan and Paris.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Comments