This is the third week after the festivities and the one we are all forced to realize we must gather our pieces and start working again. For me, that would mean an endless list of waiting-to-happen story pitches, some boring brand collateral, and the ever-shifting fashion week circle in full mode. New York Fashion Week will kick off the Fall/Winter 2024 season with Peter Do will be showing his second collection for Helmut Lang on Feb. 14 and hyper-hyped Ludovic de Saint Sernin, who will show his namesake brand for the first time outside of Paris on Feb. 11th.
For now, let us focus on the minute, less mainstream, overlooked little fashion gems we came across in our feeds, books, and deeds. Often more exciting than any fresh Saint Sernin. Let’s go.
JPG Fall/winter 1993 show-Chic Rabbis
I recently rediscovered JPG’s Chic Rabbis collection and while it would most certainly go down as cultural appropriation by our domineering woke culture, “Chic Rabbis” was the title Jean Paul Gaultier gave to his fall/winter 1993 show, inspired by Hasidic Jewish dress and culture and causing a mixed reaction. I couldn’t but feel that it still looked so fresh because of that. Fashion needs the freedom to be bold, often disturbing to some to exist as a true form of art akin to other creative endeavors. The rest is marketing.
The Pillow Narrative by Cunnington & Sanderson
The pillow narrative is a slow fashion concept by design duo Cunnington & Sanderson and an old favorite of mine. The duo creates ethereal Innovative sustainable fashion made in Great Britain. Their Pillow Narrative aims to raise awareness about mental health and encourage others to talk about emotions. Don’t we all go a little mad sometimes?
@cold_archive’s Short Fashion History Lessons
In the gold minefield of fashion facts that is COLD Archive, I have recently been fascinated by their recent post focussing on Defying Conventions: The Revolutionary Anti-Commercial Fashion Statements of the 90s.It’s great fashion history in a nutshell- plus the imagery is a predecessor to protest Tees of today.
Marie Genevieve Cyr's Wearable Internet Poems
A true 𝕁𝕖𝕦 𝕕𝕖 𝕞𝕠𝕥𝕤:
Ikeuchi Hiroto’s Post-Apocalyptic Headpieces
Ikeuchi Hiroto sculpts wearable cyberpunk fantasias from gadgets mixing cyberpunk with anime culture and dystopian design. His work offers an insightful yet unsettling commentary on our virtual, hyper-connected work through the eyes of fashion’s art and craft.
Reading List:
The fellow Substacker and dare I say, friend James Killough hit home with his newest Boy,Interrupted Substack post. Not only because of his creative non fiction-meets-confession narrative but because…we..go read it.
Ryan Yip is one of the VERY FEW so-called new fashion critics I read. I thoroughly enjoyed his take on the deceitful nature of fashion references where he makes the point that references inadvertently create echo chambers devoid of actual meanings.
P.S.: it’s the dreaded fashion month and that means we will be having an extra newsletter once the frenzy is over. For now: