Chain Reaction II

fig a. A panel dress by Martin Margiela. And a panel dress by Maison Martin Margiela. Restaged in the latest pre-collection lookbook that looked back to the label's beginnings.

fig b. A trench coat by Veronique Branquino. And a trech coat by Veronique Branquino, accompanied by variations of Anderson and Anonymous (Maison Martin Margiela).

fig c. A black suit and the iconic image of Stella Tennant by Mark Borthwick. Two classics that set the tone for the retro-designer-triptych.

fig d. A pinstripe dress. A striped dress. A checked suit. And a shirt bra. The chronological emancipation of menswear, seen here pushed furthest by Anderson who always bows to and borrows from Kawakubo.

1. Maison Martin Margiela Spring/Summer 2006
2. Maison Martin Margiela Pre Spring/Summer 2015
3. Veronique Branquinho Fall/Winter 2004
4. Veronique Branquinho Pre Spring/Summer 2015
5. J.W. Anderson Pre Spring/Summer 2015
6. Maison Martin Margiela Pre Spring/Summer 2015
7. Maison Martin Margiela Spring/Summer 1999 & Mark Borthwick Stella Tennant, 2000
8. Maison Martin Margiela Pre Spring/Summer 2015
9. Veronique Branquinho Pre Spring/Summer 2015
10. J.W. Anderson Pre Spring/Summer 2015
11. Maison Martin Margiela Pre Spring/Summer 2015
12. Comme des Garçons Fall/Winter 1995
13. J.W. Anderson Pre Spring/Summer 2015
14. Veronique Branquinho Pre Spring/Summer 2015

The world is a faded cloth. Designers are looking back to their origins, their founding years. The 1970s via the 1990s. Even if they weren't there. Together, they are recreating classics.

Veronique Branquinho 2015 = Veronique Branquinho, circa 1995 (regaining)
J.W. Anderson 2015 = Comme des Garçons, circa 1995 (redoing)
Maison Martin Margiela 2015 = Martin Margiela, circa 1995 (remembering)

Their colours are beige, black and blue. Their garments are tailored and masculine with softened volume and deconstructed details. Everything is nostalgic like blurry sepia images in a family album. But unfortunately, those photos aren't real, they are the result of filters.
/HORST

Image credits Vogue

Post Paris XXXIII

A 'False Encyclopaedia' double feature with John-Michael O'Sullivan, discussing:
Raf Simons Spring/Summer 2014

It's a boy/girl thing.

Before Raf Simons became boldface RAF SIMONS, he was just a shy Belgian student, hanging around with the cool kids - kids like his girlfriend, Véronique Branquinho, who would go on to collaborate with him at Ruffo, and to teach at the same fashion school in Vienna. And though Simons' star quickly outshone Branquinho's, you get the sense that he's never entirely shaken the vestiges of that outsiderish-ness, that lack of the intrinsic cool which Branquinho so effortlessly had.

The surfaces of this collection were so alive with associations to the past - the neon-pink shoulders from AW09, the rainbow stripes from Jil Sander Spring 2011 - that you had to pick away to get to the nancy-boy softness of thigh-grazing polo shirts, pinafore vests and fluid tees. Increasingly, his own-label collections seem as much about the flesh left exposed - the lean, gangly legs and arms emerging from cropped shorts and sleeveless shirts - as they are about the garments themselves. And the barrage of slogans (like the Jean Prouvé house, and the Calder mobile, and the Warhol illustrations stamped onto his last Dior womenswear collection) felt like semaphore; appropriated shorthand for a message that Simons won't, or can't, quite articulate.
/JOHN-MICHAEL

Undeniably, there is some kind of excitement attached to Raf Simons. And when you divide its parts, there is nothing exciting about it. Maybe it could be called 'Analytic Pop'. Ordinary things we know, signature ideas we crave, irritation we surrender to. Rave and advertising. Subculture and commerce. Raf is selling himself, selling out, selling dreams. A mass-media machine, a masturbation factory, a perpetuum mobile. The TV station that will exceed MTV. We have to admit the 'happy yeah' and swallow the pill.
/HORST








1. Raf Simons Spring/Summer 2014
2. Jean Prouvé 1962 & Alexander Calder 1957 & Raf Simons 2011
3. Helmut Lang Spring/Summer 2004
4. Raf Simons & Véronique Branquinho Ruffo Research, 2000
5. Andy Warhol Four Dollar Signs, 1982
6. Damien Hirst Lullaby, 2002
7. Dior Fall/Winter 2013
8. Raf Simons Spring/Summer 2014

All about John-Michael O'Sullivan

Post Paris XXIV

A false encyclopaedic guide to the Paris collections, presenting:
Veronique Branquinho Fall/Winter 2013

1. Veronique Branquinho Archive
2. Adriano Brusaferri Spindle tools used to calibrate organ pipes, 19th century
3. Satoshi Saikusa Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 1993

Paris re-opens the chapter of False Encyclopaedia. And since Veronique Branquinho's last show was my first show, this is an appreciation post. Celebrating craft, sincerity and stringency. The colour beige, the bustier top and turtleneck, the Belgian rigor.
/HORST

A Short History Of The Plastic Raincoat In Popular Culture IV

1. Philip Lim Fall/Winter 2012
2. Veronique Branquinho Spring/Summer 2004
3. Aisling Farrell Graduate Collection 2012
4. Laurence Philomene for Snap Magazine
5. Bodybound Fall/Winter 2012, Pierre Cardin Spring/Summer 2011, Mugler Spring/Summer 2012

Maybe one of the most legendary series, the plastic raincoat recently gained the recognition it deserves and celebrated a comeback that dominates today's editorials and runways.
/HORST

P.S.: Post-edit upon popular request: the über-perfect version of a clear plastic raincoat by Mr. Raf Sander.


6. Jil Sander Spring/Summer 2012