In that short squeezed period between holiday celebrations and the start of the fashion week circus, brands still found time to deliver some new stuff to our inbox. Some carried on the new year theme with Year of the Horse merchandise, whilst others diversified into bigger construction projects. Elsewhere, the trend towards analogue hobbies continued with designer games and books, albeit the latter in the form of bags rather than actual page-turners. Here are some things that piqued our interest as we waited for show invites to arrive.
Year of the Horse
Chinese – or more accurately Lunar – New Year has long been an excuse for brands to release a capsule collection of something or other by way of ‘celebration’ but primarily to make cash registers ring in the Eastern markets. The upcoming Year of the Horse is no exception, with a bunch of launches, ranging from lazy through weird to actually covetable. In the former stands Timberland with an unexciting boot with an abstract horse on the removable tag. Elsewhere, Acne has a pink mohair scarf and jeans covered in charms that seem to have nothing at all to do with horses. Our favourite has to be the equine intarsia sweater from Ami that will look good many years after the horse has proverbially left the stable.
Designer Buildings
Luxury labels branching out into lifestyle and art is nothing new – witness Bulgari and Armani hotels, Ralph Lauren cafés and Cartier art galleries – but there were a few raised eyebrows when standard bearers for the avant-garde, Maison Margiela, announced they were opening apartments – in Dubai of all places. We would maybe have understood more if they were located in downtown Tbilisi or a dockland in Marseilles, but a bling-bling city seems very off-brand. Maybe they will surprise locals with whitewashed furniture and calico drapes…? More understandable is Dries van Noten announcing his Fondazione in an old palazzo in Venice. The website is very vague about what it entails – lots of talk about cultural cross-pollination and craftsmanship – but there is no doubt it will be beautiful.
Dior Book Totes
We all know that reading is sexy, but Dior have been using it as a bit of a flex, not only intellectually but sartorially, with their book totes. Originally created by Maria Grazia Chiuri as a bag shape that vaguely resembled a hefty tome, it has been developed by Jonathan Anderson, the new creative director, into full trompe l’oeil representations of famous novels book covers, rendered in embroidery. Expect French classics such as Bonjour Tristesse and Les Fleurs du Mal, but also gothic masterpiece Dracula, American crime novel In Cold Blood, and the ultimate cerebral read, James Joyce’s Ulysses. Interesting to find out how many people buying the latter have actually read the original…
Eastpak x Dime
Some travellers like to get to the airport in plenty of time. Others (for example, Robin) seem to think that arriving with three minutes to spare is perfectly acceptable. Luckily, for the likes of him, luggage makers Eastpak have collaborated with skater brand Dime to create a capsule collection of bags and cases that are aimed at those with chaotic travel habits. Super strong to withstand all that banging and stress, and with very functional openings and fastenings to help with that panic-stricken search for a missing passport, the bags come in a signature blue colourway, and some feature special straps to carry a skateboard (maybe necessary for the last-minute sprint to the gate).
Miu Miu’s Uno Card Set
Gen Z and Alphas are supposedly turning their backs on technology with an increased interest in hand-written journals, physical books and dumb phones. Maybe the next phase is a rejection of video gaming and a return to the simplicity of board and card games to while away the dark winter nights. Fashion giant Miu Miu seem to think so and have collaborated with Uno to create a really rather stylish deck of playing cards presented in a leather case, perfect for travelling. The cards themselves feature specially designed – if a little confusing – artwork, maybe requiring an extra element of concentration in a game of gin rummy. At €600 a pop, though, these ones aren’t for kids.
Loewe new logo era
Often of the first things a new creative director does when he walks in the door of a well-established brand is change the logo. It’s an immediate stamp of authority showing the start of a new era and one that is visible at every level. Sometimes it is subtle – the losing of an accent on Celine, for example – and sometimes very controversial: Hedi Slimane axing ‘’Yves’ from ‘Saint Laurent’ caused uproar in the fashion world. When Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez took over Loewe last year, their first collection showed an intelligent and respectful continuation of Jonathan Anderson’s insanely successful tenure at the brand, but now comes the logo change… and they have basically cut the existing monogram in half. It’s quite a low-key approach, but to us it looks a little unfinished and too abstract to be as instantly recognisable as the original. Let’s hope it doesn’t mean the brand is half as desirable now.
