On the Wednesday of Milan Fashion Week this season, the day’s shows closed with the announcement that Jil Sander’s Luke and Lucie Meier would be exiting (confirming months of rumours anticipating the move and signalling that fashion’s latest game of musical chairs is, as expected, far from over).
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To say goodbye to the brand they'd helmed for the past eight years, the husband-and-wife duo imagined a collection about turning darkness ('the hues that seem to soak our times,' they said) into light, presenting it against a dense, black backdrop. Texture was also a key focus of the clothes: tinsel-esque fringed skirts and dresses that glistened as they caught the light; shearling and sequin accents decorated silk dresses and shirts; knitwear was embellished with bows and feathers.
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Contrasts were a key theme throughout the collection at Onitsuka Tiger. The Japanese brand was inspired by the duality of Toyko, a city full of contradictions where the hustle and bustle of neighborhoods like Shibuya, Shinjuku and Harajuku coexists right beside tranquil rural areas.
For creative director Andrea Pompilio, this inspiration was realized in a fusion of styles, English countryside barn jackets mixed in with Gorp-core-inspired Sherpa fleeces, slung over chiffon silk dresses or nordic knits, and paired with studded ballet flats or brogues. There were also lots of embellished bombers, teamed with tailored cigarette trousers for men or pleated skirts for women.
At Marni, the focus was on culture and collaboration, with creative director Francesco Risso showcasing the result of a month-long residency with artists Soldier Boyfriend and Olaolu Slawn, the co-founders of skate collective Motherlan. The collection was about bringing all three of their fantasies to life, and, in true Marni style, it put loud creativity front and centre: a blood-red suit embroidered with a giant black wolf; a fur-trimmed, gratiffi-printed silk dress; and an electric yellow gown with a part-pleated skirt, fur trimmed cuffs, and a statement zig-zag motif down the front— worn by none other than Tracee Ellis Ross.
Diesel’s show, too, was all about collaboration — but creative director Glenn Martens took the concept up a notch. He called on professional and amateur artists from around the globe to help create the set, which was made of 3.2km of graffitied fabric and formed a gigantic installation. The clothes themselves focused on Martens does so well: ‘the language of diesel,’ but ‘exploded and mixed’. Houndstooth ran throughout the (as expected) denim-heavy collection, appearing on everything from dresses and jackets, to hotpants and sheer skirts. Many pieces look like they’d been shredded and reassembled, others intentionally crumpled.
The clothing colour palette, meanwhile, was as vibrant as the graffiti surrounding it. ‘I love that thousands of people around the world have worked together to create the set design,’ Martens said. ‘We gave the global street art collective complete creative freedom – they expressed themselves each in their own way, on a project that’s taken months to achieve. This is the true democracy of Diesel.’
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