Reviews of Loewe, Aurelee, Arthur Avellano, Facetasm, Kidsuper, Yoshio Kubo, Rhude, & Kolor Spring 2021 Fashion Shows
Day 4 – Appealing To All Of Our Senses
BY LONG NGUYEN
Yesterday the strongest digital shows were those from designers and brands whose essence is the designer and founders like Olivier Rousteing at Balmain, Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Isik of GMBH, and the Chinese gymnast Li Ning and his namesake company. Their biographies are now their respective brand’s biography.
Today, designers appeal to our human experience, for us to use all of our senses to experience fashion and not just look at a screen.
Loewe
The presentation of the Loewe Men’s Spring collection began a full 24 hours, with a series of events on an hourly basis in three global time zones – Beijing, Paris, and New York – prior to its official time slot on the official digital calendar, at noon Paris time on Sunday morning.
On Saturday night at 9PM, the series kicked off with an Instagram Live event with the photographer and director Aiden Zamiri presenting a short documentary film with self-portrait-segments of kids from across the globe, all getting ready to sit in front of their screens today and represent the new front row for this particular fashion ‘show’. It sure is a stark reminder in its vivid colors and actions of the changing topography of the citizens of Fashion, a change over the past decade shifting the center of gravity towards a more democratic playing field as digital formats invite all to participate at their own choosing.
An hour later, Adam Bainbridge aka Kindness, wearing a white silk dress and leaf green boots spoke about how he curated the music as if this were an actual show – in this case a mixing of multiple versions of the same 1970 jazz song ‘Sekoilu Seestyy’ (The Madness Subsides) by a Finnish artist named Pohjola Pekka that included segments from other artists, from a sample that DJ Shadow had used for his own song ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’ to the sounds created by Jihah Park, the harpist Ayya Simone, Matthis Picard, Bryndon Cook aka Star Child, and the New Romantics who all contributed to creating the musical piece.
“’Madness Subsides’ and ‘Finding a Perfect World’ seemed like a perfect hope for this moment in time,” said Kindness as he disappeared behind a large tree out of the sun’s rays.
I had missed the 4 AM zoom breakfast, a 40 minutes long affair with split-screen chat between Anderson and The Crown actor Josh O’Connor, who fronted this spring ad campaign shot. The pair spoke of gardening, tidying the house and about the kitchen sink creative approach and process at home in these recent months. “I find it somewhat therapeutic to do the show in a box. It’s less stressful as you let people do it at home, having breakfast,” Anderson said as O’Connor showed some of the finished assemblies of paper cuts and triangular cardboard stand-ups along with fabric swatches.
“During this lockdown, I was fascinated by how people were making things,” Anderson said of how the idea of the do-it-yourself box germinated – the box that O’Connor opened into a pop-up 3D paper sculpture like a monopoly board game, with actual pieces of houses and dice.
Just minutes before 6 AM on Sunday morning in New York, I joined other front-row denizens and tuned-in to the French federation site that broadcasted the Paris digital show to hear Jonathan Anderson explaining his concepts and highlights of the new season.
“The approach for this menswear collection was taking one technique or one idea and making it a total look. Each time when we were doing pieces, they had to be able to work sculpturally on a mannequin.
“The key silhouette this season is about volume – there’s a heightened sense of architecture,” Anderson said of a white knit with flared sleeves and a waist belt, a brown trench coat with large cocoon balloon leather bag attached to the back, a white jacket with a black circle in front, and a long sleeve tee shirt dress with Shibori tie-dye technique. Anderson focused on the special techniques he used like taking one singular raw thread to create a red hand-knit sleeveless cowl neck sweater with frayed pockets, and the traditional basket weaving artist Idoia Cuesta employed in which an actual basket became a leather vest.
“I like the idea that the bag and the garment became the same thing,”: a multi-colored leather jacket converted into a shoulder bag – an idea of merging the new crafts of apparel to Loewe’s heritage as a leather house. A circle of pink, tan, and black, layered cotton polo, and a black circle wool blouson both have the shape of a round shoulder bag.
“We have started to learn over the period of quietness and reflection to use our hands, to express ourselves, to make bread, to knit, or to do gardening. So with each garment from the basket tops to shearling to shibori, these things are all creative outputs by artisans, each piece is a narrative to a bigger story – the story of modern craft” – black look with tan leather large bubble sleeves, and a graphic sweater inspired by a Paul Cadmus painting.
“It is always nice to explore within clothing vulnerability because I think it is an emotional connection within clothing, which I think is probably what we need more of,” Anderson said at the end of this entire Loewe interconnectedness of our sensory and tactile experiences, far beyond the trappings of the digital world.
“If I did a show and no one would be there, it would be kind of ridiculous. People are way more personal and less [like a] corporation – rejection to the multinationals – experiences to be real, to be honest – you want to believe it. You don’t want to watch a film and realize oh that’s a fake backdrop,” Anderson said about the potential of doing a show without an audience, or huis clos as they say in Paris.
Anderson and Loewe send us all a firm reminder of how life and fashion are lived, and lived beyond the screen.
Breakfast 
Lumch
Aurelee
Images of the sky, green leaves, and ocean waves are interspersed with a group of models sitting in a circular ring as each reminisces and recounts their travel experiences, talking in their own languages but all sharing the vivid memories they once felt in Aurelee’s first-ever video, conferring the nostalgia and freedom of movement of travel.
“Our collections do not have binding seasonal themes, they are more explorations and continuations inspired by the fabrics themselves. Working in conditions where the privileges of everyday life have disappeared, I found myself thinking of where I would like to travel, had the circumstances allowed,” said Ryota Iwai, the designer of Tokyo-based brand Aurelee, founded in 2015.
Boxy jackets and pants, relaxed trenches, easy knits are the coming season’s seasonless clothes, made entirely in Japan with premium fabrics sourced globally like luxurious linen, cotton blends, organic wool mesh, soft washi cotton and light tropical wools in colors that reflected the natural hues of the landscapes, the sands and the water – light blue, light purple, light khaki, and light mustard yellow.
“My goal is to make clothing that does not impose an aesthetic bur rather enhances the wearers’ individuality,” said Iwai in appealing not just to individuality, but to our senses and our touches even if they were from our memories.
Arthur Avellano
“Interaction, impact, mixed, Flowing, complex, natural, latex” are the words that flash on the screen in the opening of Arthur Avellano‘s film ‘Origin’, with very close-up pairs of hands caressing parts of a body urging the audience to emulate and more importantly to feel this sense of touch, an appeal to our tactile senses amongst designers featuring their work during this exceptional season of online-only platforms.
“Like blood, it circulates, coagulates into a sticky and plastic whiteness when it meets the air. It hardens, lives, becomes plastic – my latex,” continues the film’s narration as the visual shows the white milky liquid from the tree, the ingredient to make rubber, and as a model emerged in a tree-decorated studio, wearing a black latex coat and meandering around the various plantings. Avellano, a recent graduate of the Toulouse fine arts school, has worked with latex since his graduation project until now, making a hybrid latex that behaves a bit like leather, but is easier to clean and maintain the shine and texture.
In the 5 years since, Avellano has experimented with latex as a primary source of his work in fashion, even transforming medical latex into thin and versatile materials for use as a fashion fabric. Now with new technological treatments, the rubber fabric has less of a roughness but a feeling of naturally grown fabrics like cotton, which reminds us rubber is natural and organic but in a different way. Beyond using latex for basic items like tee shirts, tank tops, bikinis, and shorts, Avellano ventures this time into using this rubber for tailored garments like the black latex single-breasted jacket and linear coat, black coat, or a white jacket with black floral print.
Appealing to the sense of touch of his preferred material – latex.
“Tactile, skin against skin, through its hand, feel, bodies and fetish meet, the freest mind dares. Intense, latex intensifies the senses. My latex. It’s my passion,” Avellano said about the fetish of touch, of the feel of the material on the skin, and on the whole body as the video is a 3-minute appeal to our sense of touch – especially the touch of his favorite material – latex.
Avellano’s total commitment and utter passion are indeed rare and necessary in this time for fashion.
Facetasm
Directed by Taichi Kimura for Hiromichi Ochiai’s official visual presentation for his label Facetasm since 2007, “More Memories” opens with a model walking in an underground parking lot wearing a boxy deconstructed and reengineer denim jacket and a navy shirt with pleated layers of ruffles around the neck, and follows him around until he stands still, closes his eyes, looks upward, and ponders his memories shown in scattered images of streets, houses, Tokyo Tower, and of course numerous changes of clothes.
Aqua blue dress shirt with fringes, trench coat with cut out fabrics, a graphic black sweat logo coat, a reworked olive army fatigue with yellow tartan ruffles, or one with an overlay of ice blue pleated chiffon and an oversize denim short suit are among Ochiai’s latest offerings combining his expert tailoring with his street sensibility to create specific garments that are unique.
The dream ended with the same model now standing outside in the sunshine on a rooftop of a highrise building amidst a range of office towers. Not sure if in real life or in a dream, he has changed into a slightly oversized shiny green trench belted at the waist and shorts.
Kidsuper
‘Everything’s Fake Until It’s Real’, Colm Dillane’s film presentation after his unofficial debut showing in Paris last June at the Cirque d’hiver Bouglione, is exactly what the title says, literally and figuratively. The film is a surreal fashion show but one that abides all the commonly known runway etiquettes in the manner of walking, posing and showing off accessories. The film with fully dressed wooden figures as models, and as front row guests that included Queen Elizabeth II, Elon Musk, Pablo Picasso, Naomi Campbell, Kanye West, and the Obamas is first a humorous take on an actual show, and second an ironic take because in real life this brand would avoid this kind of straight forward showing. But as they say, on reels anything can and actually does happen.
“Thought about renting a whole theater for the premiere, but with the whole world situation, this was a nice viewing. This video is so fucking good and we worked so hard on it,” Dillane said in the brand’s Instagram hours before the premier.
A ‘model’ in a yellow and navy coat made of strips of ribbon prances around on stage until he collapses in a sort of emulation of a concert-like pre-show performance. Dillane miniaturized his clothes and the size difference gives the garments heft, like a light orange parka with handwritten prose paired with lime green jeans with face drawings on the side of one leg that opened the ‘show’. Even the painter Salvador Dali walks in wearing a red crop jacket suit decorated with graphic lips. And in this age of diversity and inclusion even in this puppet runway, there is a model in a wheelchair.
The clothes are an inventive take on the various classic and familiar garments, some signature looks and accessories associated with luxury brands but designed with a sense of unexpected humor. One guy wearing a yellow coat with sequined embroidered face art and blue printed pants carries a small black leather purse with gold KS logo, while another sports a blue four-button chenille wool with a rounded lapel pantsuit decorated with colored stone rings and a soccer ball handbag. One great look is a patchwork floral large collar blouson with an ecru large cotton pant, or a yellow and blue crochet sweater with white hand-painted large pants. Well that’s actually two looks.
Fun aside and on a serious note though, it is not hard to see these clothes made and sold in real-life sizes. “Thank you everyone for coming. People say that the fashion world is filled with fake and plastic people. Well we proved them wrong. This is our first official show and we did it our way,” said the puppet Dillane, just like the way the real one came out to thank his audience last year.
This faux ‘défilé’ sure beats a real fashion show with its upbeat celebration of fashion. Anna Wintour is correct when she turns to Naomi Campbell and says ‘KidSuper is so hot right now.’ Of course, her remark is subtitled in French ‘KidSuper est Hot en ce moment.’ It’s unfortunate that this moment took place on the puppet stage.
Yoshio Kubo
Yoshio Kubo’s ‘Ground Floor’ is simply a straight on ‘runway’ walk albeit on the ground floor courtyard of a wooden house, in this case the setting for Noh theatrical performances decorated with elaborate etchings of old bonsai trees. Kubo reinterprets the traditional staple of Japanese dress uniforms such as the kimono worn for war into a contemporary wardrobe of vest, jackets and coats with oversize shapes like a short sleeve cross over double-breasted light short sleeve jacket, a white satin lapel double-breasted flare pantsuit, or a light gray collarless double-sided coat.
Although the clothes are well-conceived and made in a way that balances the “then” and the “now”, the visual presentation betrays the actual location of the Noh theatre – it would have been better with perhaps an injection of real performance where there’s a compelling narrative.
Rhude
Unlike the title of Rhuigi Villaseñor’s Paris digital week following his first Rhude show there at the Montmartre night club in January – ‘The Audacity to Dream’, the actual vision of the spring presentation film was rather quite simple, all the action took place in a lush garden and posh house somewhere on a Los Angeles hillside with 3 models lounging and walking about at a leisurely pace around the pool and the house, showing off the latest outfits.
The collection shown seems more pared down to essentials rather than a full-scale collection like last season, which included tailoring among the more casual pieces. Ecru blouson and matching shorts and tailored straight-leg pants in soft brushed twill, chocolate sweatsuit, black leather jacket and a short-sleeve shirt, seersucker Hawaiian shirt and black leather shorts, black hoodie, prints shirts, and a red suede hooded coat are among the clothes, at least these requisite luxury essentials for next spring. The sunglasses worn by the model Cheik Tall at the opening seems like a new product introduction.
The dream of living in a posh house with a swimming pool on the hills is as valid now, perhaps more so than ever. And in this casual era, these are maybe the perfect wardrobe selections for lounging about one’s house or even at someone’s else.
Kolor
Yusuke Tanaka’s fast spinning action in the video for Juniche Abe’s Kolor spring collection is very much in tune with how Abe constructs his fashion – taking different elements and spinning them around and merging them together to create new products that are often complicated garments manufactured with technical precision using the latest fabric innovation.
This time Abe uses small undersized garments to accentuate the regular sized clothes, such as a smaller vest worn outside a crinkle shirt coat, a small purple blouson worn outside a khaki trench coat, or a light grey nylon cropped baseball jacket worn over an oversized red cotton blouson.
Epilogue
Understanding fashion sometimes isn’t an intellectual undertaking; it’s a matter of feeling everything, of using all of our senses that contribute to the total experience of fashion.
“Having all these things you can touch instead of just look at,” the actor Josh O’Connor said as he demonstrated, by using both of his hands to open the double-ply Loewe cardboard that unfolds into pop-ups of green floral patterned sculptures, during his Instagram breakfast chat with the brand’s creative director Jonathan Anderson. Arthur Avellano used the word ‘tactile’ to describe how his latex literally rubs against the skin forcing a sensation, a feeling just like the dizziness of looking at Kolor’s spinning action film.