Collabs are a big part of the fashion world these days. Originally they were mostly centred around bringing the expertise of a specialist manufacturer or distributor to a design house (think Nike x Jacquemus, Barbour x lots of people and even the hugely successful H&M designer collections) though more recently they have become more obscure and left field (Lacoste x Netflix, Disney x Vespa to name but a few eyebrow raisers).
However, perhaps inspired by Raf Simons announcing that for the foreseeable future, he would be working alongside Miucci Prada, there seems to be a trend for designers themselves to put their heads together to produce some sort of cross-pollination of ideas: collections that rely on a mix of creative juices and mutual inspiration. From the outside, it is easy to imagine a clash of egos or a dilution of good concepts but what are the actual results of these meetings of the mind?
The first to catch our eye was the somewhat surprising partnership between laid-back Swedish Our Legacy and fancy Italian luxury brand Emporio Armani. Despite the generation gap, the results have some convincing pieces, especially when the former’s slouchy shapes are reinterpreted in the latter’s trademark earthy tones and tweedy textures. But there are definitely pieces that look like one or the other brand rather than a collaboration: the Warhol-style cat illustration has the sense of humour we could only associate with Our Legacy whilst the leather over-shirt looks just a little too precious to be Scandinavian.
Emporio Armani X Our Legacy
More successful is the alliance between classic-with-a-twist Paul Smith and Commission, a young New York based design duo. The latter were given full access to the Smithy archive – particularly the runway collections around the millennium – and then reinterpreted them to suit a young, hip audience. The 22 pieces have the feeling of vintage discoveries with punchy colour, off-beat prints and quirky details. We love the slouchy brown suit and the retro knits in particular and the campaign shoot itself is really worth a look too.
Paul Smith X Commission
