“I am calling on you both to HELP STOP THIS.”
Category: Clothing
Sunday marks the first official day of New York Fashion Week’s spring 2021 season, set to be an unprecedented series of collections shown digitally, physically — socially distanced or without bystanders — or not at all. In the last seven months, the world has experienced global turmoil and hardships; the fashion industry, with its usual hamster wheel of newness, was forced to stop and slow down immensely. For many, the time has been crucial to step back and understand how the industry should move forward, with important conversations about the fashion calendar, the wholesale model, sustainability and equality all at the forefront.
Throughout the resort season and in the weeks following, designers worldwide have made decisions based on what’s important for their businesses. The New York calendar is split — a lineup of new and expected talents is scheduled to show through the 16th while New York’s marquee designers, Michael Kors included, have their sights set on mid-October. Even Council of Fashion Designers of America chairman Tom Ford does not anticipate a traditional runway season returning until at least fall 2021 (for the spring 2022 season).
Regardless of date, time or format, a shared value among designers big and small is
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Kente Gentlemen Honors Heritage
Kente Gentlemen is seeking to address misconceptions about what is meant by “African” fashion. More expansive than what’s typically highlighted, fashion in Africa encompasses “a multitude of traditions, cultures, textures, forms, techniques and philosophies,” according to founder Aristide Loua.
Loua serves as creative director, the the team consists of Sydney Bagrou, chief financial officer, and Cyprien Mvuanda, chief technology officer. The brand’s aesthetic approach is a combination of culture, poetry and color into each article of clothing. Each piece is tailored in unique style from fabrics handmade in Africa to pay respect to and support the textile heritage and local craftsmanship of the continent, which includes a community of hand-weavers, artists, tailors and artisans. Loua ventured to the markets of Abidjan to find tailors, and the countryside for local artisans.
Other standouts include the “Femi” cropped jacket, which retails for $155, and the best-selling “Tradi-Jacket III-01,” a denim-like shirt jacket handwoven by local artisans in the Senoufo region of Côte d’Ivoire.
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Back to School Virtually
Due to COVID-19 and social-distancing rules, many students throughout the U.S. are being forced to go to school virtually. The one good thing about taking classes from your bedroom or living room — for students at least — is that you can dress comfortably. Instead of buying a new back-to-school wardrobe, things like a new Apple or Acer laptop and urban earbuds are the must-have purchases. Here, WWD rounds up everything needed for the 2020-21 virtual school year.
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Market Moments: Kendra Duplantier
Kendra Duplantier is a Los Angeles-based independent women’s wear designer whose collections focus on timeless pieces that celebrate the female form. After graduating from Savannah College of Art and Design, she moved to New York City, where she lived and worked within the fashion industry for 10 years before launching her own line in 2019. The concept behind Duplantier’s label is “unique pieces to add to your wardrobe and cherish for years to come,” stemming from her own wardrobe of vintage and designer, where super-occasional pieces can live alongside the super-casual. Promoting slow and ethical fashion to wear season after season, a favorite piece of the designer’s is her “Bassi” cutout trousers featuring side pockets, which retail for $475.
Other standout pieces include the Maris slipdress that comes in a copper brown color with an open drape in the back and an adjustable slide slip and straps, which retails for $625, and the Lucia asymmetrical white fitted rib tank, retailing for $190. She is producing more colorways of existing styles and developing new pieces, which are set to be released in October.
A look from Kendra Duplantier.
A look from Kendra Duplantier.
A look from Kendra Duplantier.
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Apartment 202 Carving Out a Space
Contemporary women’s wear brand Apartment 202 is carving out a niche with its eye-catching pieces. Founded by Miami native Brandee Godwin, who goes by BB professionally, the brand got its name from the designer’s first apartment in Los Angeles, which doubled as a design studio. BB gathers inspiration from interior design and gives subtle hints within pieces that reflect her personal style, like oversized bottoms and risqué tops. “The goal is to construct staple pieces that transcend time,” said BB. Bestsellers include the “Virgo” top — pentagon armor cut with a strappy back priced at $110 — and the “Gilda trousers,” featuring a relaxed boy cut, oversized paper-bag pockets and double-band waist priced at $375. New releases include the dreamers collection and Mermaid lagoon. A staple upcoming piece is a crystal T-shirt overlaid with the “Virgo” top.
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Paris taxi drivers usually know when it’s Paris Fashion Week.
Not this time, with participants in their homes or offices behind computer screens or hunched over their phones to discover creative films dedicated to the fall couture collections.
Said films ranged from rapid-fire teaser clips clocking in at less than a minute to Dior’s mega production, a 10-minute mythical movie directed by famed Italian director Matteo Garrone that was followed by five minutes of rolling credits.
Plenty of couture houses — even Chanel — kept it simple with films that mimicked fashion shoots or runway shows.
A word of caution to brands: When using the same model and the same music throughout, tedium can set in.
Other films resembled music videos, while a few went for disturbing drama scenes. Here, a selection of highlights and lowlights.
HIGHLIGHTS
Singer Mika is pitch-perfect as a retro newscaster offering deadpan commentary on Viktor & Rolf’s collection. His description of a spiky coat, part of a gloom-and-doom segment? “There’s a lot to feel angry about and this garment will communicate exactly that,” he intones.
Bouchra Jarrar kept everything close to home, filming twin sisters frolicking in her Paris apartment, where she produced many prototypes herself. Her models also ventured out to a
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Naomi Campbell opened Paris Couture Week with a video address dedicated to the “fight for equality and diversity.”
“This is a call for action we are making,” she said, wearing sleeveless T-shirt bearing the words PHENOMENALLY BLACK.
Seated on a cream-colored sofa in a gilded room, a crystal chandelier behind her head, Campbell quoted Nelson Mandela and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“It is up to us, it is up to you to start enforcing inclusion of the multitude of identities that compose our countries,” she said. “The time has come to build a more equitable industry with a good form of checks and balances.
“It is now more than ever compulsory to include them in a permanent way, and not a transient one,” she added.
The supermodel urged “regular and sustainable conversations with minorities from each countries and cultures, who already invisible actors of this mega industry.
“It starts now, in France,” she concluded. “I am Naomi Campbell and I declare Paris couture fashion week ouvert. Merci.”
SCHIAPARELLI:
With no new collection this season, Schiaparelli presented a short film showing creative director Daniel Roseberry sketching what it dubbed an “Imaginary Collection.” He was seated on a bench in Washington Square Park in New York, where he was
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Academy members were offended that the cast wore “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts commemorating Eric Garner, who died from police brutality, to the film’s premiere.
The music industry is standing in solidarity after the death of George Floyd, who was fatally restrained by Minneapolis police, with a “Blackout Tuesday” initiative.
Atlantic Records’ senior director of marketing, Jamila Thomas and Platoon’s senior artist campaign manager, Brianna Agyemang, are behind the blackout, which is also circulating on social media as #TheShowMustBePaused. The blackout calls for the music industry to stop operations on Tuesday, June 2, to bring awareness to the police brutality and racial injustice in the U.S.
“The music industry is a multibillion dollar industry. An industry that has profited predominantly from black art,” reads a statement on the initiative’s web site. “Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations and their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and successes of black people accountable. To that end, it is the obligation of these entities to protect and empower the black community that have made them disproportionately wealthy in ways that are measurable and transparent.”
“Blackout Tuesday” has received support from major record labels, including Interscope Records, Def Jam Recordings, Warner Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Capitol Records and Columbia Records, among others.
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A post shared by Def Jam Recordings
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