designers

Quote of the day: Phoebe Philo for HTSI



Phoebe Philo guest editor How To Spend It

“With so much of our collective experience and social interaction reliant on a digital culture, clothes, for me, represent almost the polar opposite. Clothes are tactile, emotionally resonant, personal and, on so many levels, anything but remote. The person wearing the clothes wears them against their skin. The person designing them is proposing garments that may be life-enhancing, protective, revealing, seductive – arousing many different feelings, both inwardly and outwardly.”
Phoebe Philo, How To Spend It (more…)



Quote of the day: Jean Touitou on Agnès b



Agnes b Snap cardigan

“I was playing my electric guitar in [Agnès b’s] studio above the store one evening. I remember seeing her come back from dinner, put a black round-neck sweatshirt on a desk, grab a pair of scissors and cut the piece right down the middle. Then, she took snap buttons and put them on the front. It became a worldwide hit.”
A.P.C’s Jean Touitou on the birth of the Agnès b snap cardigan in 1979, New York Times (more…)



Calvin Klein: Nostalgia or Now?



Calvin Klein Collection SS25

Lots of people have been in my DMs asking for my thoughts on the Calvin Klein Collection reboot. Lies! One person asked, but I’m here to share my two cents anyway.

This show was the most highly anticipated of NYFW. If the relaunch of a 5-decades-old label is what’s getting people hyped about NYFW, that says rather a lot about the state of ennui. So, Veronica Leoni (formerly of The Row and Phoebe’s Celine) had a great deal resting on her spaghetti-strapped shoulders.

The show was beautiful. It was clean, serene, elegant and poised. It looked like 1990s Old Calvin. But is that a compliment? Or a problem? (more…)



Oh, Dior! Kim Jones is leaving, is Maria G-C next?



Kim Jones Dior mens winter 2019-2020

It’s official. After weeks of speculation, it’s been confirmed that Kim Jones is leaving Dior menswear after seven years.

I’ve really liked most of what Kim has done at LVMH (apart from Fendi – sorry!) and have routinely posted his Dior menswear shows here as he’s been an early adopter of using traditionally ‘feminine’ tropes in his collections, like certain couture techniques, styling tricks (brooches!), not to mention repopularising the women’s 1990s saddlebag for men. (more…)