I LLUSTRATED SLICES OF EVERYDAY SCENES, CLOTHING MADE FOR DAILY ACTIVITY, AND A CELEBRATION OF REGULAR-JOE STYLE – THE SPRING/SUMMER 2018 COLLECTIONS PUT AN UNEXPECTED TWIST ON ALL THINGS FAMILIAR.
I LLUSTRATED SLICES OF EVERYDAY SCENES, CLOTHING MADE FOR DAILY ACTIVITY, AND A CELEBRATION OF REGULAR-JOE STYLE – THE SPRING/SUMMER 2018 COLLECTIONS PUT AN UNEXPECTED TWIST ON ALL THINGS FAMILIAR.
01 VALENTINO
02 HERMES
03 JIL SANDER
04 ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA
05 BOTTEGA VENETA
06 AMARNI
Attention armchair athletes, now is your time to shine. While actual sports activities, such as mountaineering and skiing, have served as the driving force behind fashion collections in recent years, Spring/Summer 2018 (SS18) sees designers taking a more general approach. As Bottega Veneta creative director Tomas Maier summed up for his men’s collection, which includes blouson jackets and track pants-style trousers accented with a lengthwise stripe: “There’s no tailoring. It’s all very sportswear and soft, but nothing designed for a workout.”
Exhale, and relax: These are not clothes made for the gym, but for real life in 2018. For his debut Ermenegildo Zegna Couture collection, for instance, artistic director Alessandro Sartori focused on the “purposeful merging of outdoor life with indoors”, which translated to items such as track pants-like bottoms made from lightweight silk. The sport of life even inspired Hermes’ Veronique Nichanian – usually the mistress of subtle surprises – to go flashier than usual, with drawstring trousers and hooded jackets in Toilbright, a vibrantly coloured, water-repellent material patented by Hermes. You’ll want to get moving, if only just to show off these pieces.
SMALL SUNGLASSES
We don’t often take fashion advice from Kanye West, but, in this case, he’s right. Recently, the famously swollen-headed music mogul and fashion designer made headlines with an e-mail to wife Kim Kardashian, with the very important message that large sunglasses were out, and small frames were in. Trend-creating brand Balenciaga has several undersized sunnies for SS18: A familiar shape, such as these truncated aviators, can ease you into this look.
SUITED DOWN
01 KENZO
02 MARNI
03 STELLA MCCARTNEY
04 ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA
05 PRADA
06 DOLCE & GABBANA
07 SALVATORE FERRAGAMO
With fashion heavyweights such as Bottega Veneta’s Tomas Maier doing new menswear collections devoid of suits, it’s interesting to contemplate the suit’s place in fashion as the world moves forward. This season, designers further the notion of the suit as casual/off-duty uniform with new styles spanning the colour spectrum.
There were several styles in soft pastel shades – another major Spring trend. Lightweight lilac versions were spotted at Loewe and Salvatore Ferragamo, although one of our favourite takes on the look was a light-blue double-breasted number done by Stella McCartney. Since debuting her menswear line in late 2016, the Savile Row-trained English designer has proven to be just as adept in masculine style as she is in feminine fashion.
Never short of glamour, Dolce & Gabbana offered a suitably glitzy take on the coloured suit, sending jewel-toned ensembles down a runway featuring many Instagram stars and celebrity scions.
WAIST BAGS
Fanny pack, bum bag, waist bag – whatever you call this style of carrier favoured by kopitiam aunties and uncles here, what you need to know is that it’s back in favour among the fashionable crowd. For twice the style points, get this oversized model in Louis Vuitton’s latest take on the monogram – the Monogram Split, which unites differently coloured monogram canvases. For a look that’s now, sling it across your body rather than around your waist.
ISLAND LIFE
01 LOUIS VUITTON
02 LOUIS VUITTON
03 PAUL SMITH
04 BALENCIAGA
05 STELLA MCCARTNEY
06 STELLA MCCARTNEY
If this trend is anything to go by, many designers must have hit resort islands for their last vacations. How else to explain the plethora of cheerful Hawaiian-style shirts in the SS18 collections? Louis Vuitton men’s artistic director, Kim Jones, who recently presented his final collection for the French luxury brand, was inspired by specific islands as well as island-hopping – “of moving from place to place, and experiencing these different pockets of civilisation and identities simultaneously”. Jones’ luxe Hawaiian shirts certainly united disparate elements: Large blooms – some real, some imagined – were printed on tops that were overlaid with organza for a fluid effect. Fans of Blue Hawaii-era Elvis Presley might disagree, but we don’t think we’ve ever seen such tops look this high-fashion.
But not all designers had island vacations on the brain. Paul Smith looked back on his memories when creating pieces such as shirts bedecked with hibiscus and corals; in the 1970s, the English designer used to buy “trunks of Hawaiian shirts” from Soho in New York City, which he would sell back home in Nottingham. These shirts would later inspire his signature floral prints. This season, every man would do well to be an island, metaphorically speaking.
GOSHA RUBCHINSKIY X BURBERRY
Along with Demna Gvasalia, Gosha Rubchinskiy is one of the Eastern European fashion designers making major waves right now. Known for his 1990s-inflected streetwear, the edgy designer has made old-school sports labels such as Fila, Kappa and Sergio Tacchini cool again. His second collaboration with Burberry will see Rubchinskiy putting his spin on the latter’s famous coats and checks.
ART OF THE MATTER
01 FENDI
02 MARNI
03 LANVIN
04 PRADA
05 PRADA
06 3.1 PHILLIP LIM
07 3.1 PHILLIP LIM
Art influencing fashion might not be new – for instance, Yves Saint Laurent counted Dutch avant-garde painter Piet Mondrian among his inspirations, and Rodarte’s designs often reference Impressionist artists’ works. What sets this season’s art-inspired styles apart is how rooted they are in the everyday. Prada’s fashion-show space and clothing were decked out in comic-style illustrations created by artists James Jean and Olivier Schrauwen. Instead of superhero themes, the art belonged to the category that graphic-novel fans will recognise as “slice of life”. The panels at Prada showed everyday images – a man staring off into the distance, a moving train, a cup of coffee.
A cup of coffee – that great elixir of modern life – was among the seemingly mundane items illustrated by artist Sue Tilley, a cult figure on the British art scene. Tilley’s depictions of items such as a desk lamp, banana peel and leaky taps add a kitschy touch to Fendi’s latest jackets and knits, as well as bags and belts. And at Lanvin, menswear chief Lucas Ossendrijver celebrated the Everyman (and Everywoman) with shirts that feature printed portraits of anonymous people, painted by an artist in Montmartre.
LOGO MANIA
Along with the resurgence of all things 1990s comes a return of the brand logo. (As one fashion editor recently declared to us, only half in jest: “I used to dislike logos, but now I’m like, read my body!”) The most sought-after motifs of the season are inspired by brands’ logos from the 1980s and 1990s – these include the Versace logo seen in the SS18 collection, which pays homage to the brand’s late designer, Gianni Versace; as well as Valentino’s VLTN logo.
01 PRADA
02 FENDI
03 SALVATORE FERRAGAMO
04 LANVIN
05 KENZO
06 MARNI
07 BALENCIAGA
Whether you want to call it normcore or dadcore, the next big movement in fashion is exactly the kind of thing that baffles regular folks who just want their clothing to, you know, make them look good. Popularised by influential Eastern Bloc designers such as Demna Gvasalia (the creative head of Balenciaga and Vetements, who hails from former Soviet republic Georgia) and Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy, current normcore style tends towards an ironic take on 1990s-style everyday dressing. Think yobbish youths in tees with sportswear-brand logos and tracksuits, or older men in mid-wash jeans and too-large shirts.
In recent seasons, waistbands have risen along with a taste for nerdy-normal styles. From Fendi to Ferragamo, and Marni to Stella McCartney, high-waisted trousers will be preventing men from letting it – and by it, we mean pot bellies – all hang out for the season to come. All kidding aside, a mid-rise (lower than those shown at Balenciaga and Kenzo, but slightly higher than many men generally favour) can give trousers a more streamlined and flattering look. Try it the next time you hit your tailor’s.
LONG BELTS
We’re not sure how much of it is to do with the fact that trousers are being worn higher on the waist – but belts seem to be getting longer. Instead of letting your belt hang freely like a sash you nicked from a three-sizes-too-large bathrobe, we suggest trying a longish, statement belt like this double-ended version from Bottega Veneta. Looks best when sported over a coat.
