SHOWnews: Kim Jones Gifts Us Marc Jacobs In Silver, Christopher Kane Gifts Us Pure Fashion Gold
A Christopher Kane Self Portrait
Disclaimer: This op-ed in service of Christopher Kane’s amazingness is the sole rant of M-C Hill, fashion critic at SHOWstudio.
I obsess over models as much as I do Christopher Kane. On the Scottish model Kirsty Hume, the powerhouse Harpers Bazaar editor Liz Tilberis once said ‘Well she’s Scottish so you know she holds her hips a certain way. It’s a way of walking, a way of looking. She is good.’ I’ve often thought that quote best explained Christopher Kane expertise that makes mundane aspects of life in slight cinematic motion, extraordinary. Friends will know my love for ‘CKane’ runs deep. It is a wholly irrational stream of emotion-driven consciousness they suffer through whenever he comes up. Years ago, interviewing an idol (privacy protected) for my market report at Central Saint Martins, I screamed at the casual mention of his name. As we discussed who we liked and why, I told this person ‘I am in love with Christopher Kane because he is in love with fashion.’ It simply boils down to that. Looking back to look forward is a big Kane quality. Whether from 1990s Versace, horror movies, pages in books, his cheeky approach to sexual semiotics, brain synapses and psychosematic hoarding, fur and camouflage as a force of will, Planet Of The Apes…the breadth of fashion gets defined as limitless in Christopher Kane’s catwalk dictionary. And so he returns with a new collection for Self-Portrait.
The mutations of Christopher Kane swoosh backwards to zip forwards. Returning seventeen years later are those Christopher Kane zip dresses from his first runway collection. Less technicolour than back then, Kane zips, corsetry and sparkles still titillate in pastel shades. The thrill of more Kane galvanises my joy with fashion references. The ruffles on updated 07 dresses are old 07, but also recall the scrubbing brush, kinky clean, brothel ode to Cynthia Payne from spring 18 ( LOVED that show!). Sliced pastel jumpers reference the mostly black, irresistibly erotic fall 14 collection (The hybrids in that show my GOD! PVC and guipure! Darkwave nylon and Victorian blouses! Sheer Kane mash-up madness!). Emblematic Christopher Kane lace damask reappears too. What started in that perfect fall 10 show (a top 5 Kane favourite) went acidic the following season (that cyberdog collection), then returned to taut, floral latticework in 18-19 (those Joy Of Sex and Sexual Cannibalism shows running back to back). Kane rearticulated past to present fashion across his landscape of leggings, bustiers and a pastel A-line on Col The Doll.
Observe the vision returned to obsessive form in Christopher Kane for Self-Portrait. Notice the model Marina Perez, who walked in his first S/S 07 show. She, too, brings the Self-Portrait full circle. I screamed about my love for Christopher Kane four years ago to an idol. It felt ‘More Joy’ to scream once again this past week. God love that man.
Kim Jones And Marc Jacobs Sound Off Silver
The Marc Jacobs 40th Anniversary Tour has seen well-known to unsung friends in the timeline showcase what the man and the man’s brand (while brand is overused, for Marc Jacobs it is 100% appropriate) mean to them. While we wait intensely to again see Jacobs and Katie Grand collaborate in a tangible way, Kim Jones goes above board to toast the man who offered up a platform to express obsessions that visualise Jones’ big picture fashion attitude.
It was 2011 when Marc Jacobs appointed Kim Jones as creative director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear division (being a Kim Jones sycophant from way back, this news arrived like an orgasm). Eleven years later Jones repaid graciousness with generosity by inviting Jacobs to conceive a Fendi cruise collection staged in New York. Today, Jones christens and combines their respective visionary language. His own contribution to the Marc Jacobs 40th Anniversary Party contains a necklace with signatures from KJ (CD for Christian Dior, where Jones is men's creative director) and MJ (self-explanatory if you know when to call a brand a brand).
‘Marc is one of my heroes.’
— Kim Jones
Being an old hat Kim Jones sycophant, you can’t help but overthink this tribute to Marc Jacobs. Ripples of Marc’s own Marc By Marc collection (the first one from Hillier and Bartley) ten years ago featured a similar accent Judy Blame designed resembling Kim’s updated version. While those stainless steel ‘MJ’ chandelier prisms are awfully familiar, this is no carbon copycatting. The Jones aesthetic, which maintains a true love for Judy Blame (their LV mens A/W 15, Jones’ Dior mens A/W 20 Judy tribute), understands how time gets reverse engineered to relay romantic commonalities. Isn’t that the reason for his toast to Marc Jacobs in the first place? One simply could not innovate without the other’s first revolution. Now, shall we play The Sugarcubes Birthday, or what?
A Matty Bovan Yuletide Explosion
We love a bit of Matty Bovan at SHOWstudio. And thankfully, Matty Bovan has no chill. When most fashion companies plot some awkward pivot into Holiday-themed traffic, the Bovan aesthetic effortlessly occupies this lane. Honestly, do you want to gift some nonsense crap from the global fashion big dogs using wintry words to hypnotise or get an authentic idea from Matty that sits easily at Fantastic Toiles year-round? Matty Bovan keeps holiday shopping honest with his new collection.
Mixed media practise represents both holidays and quintessential Matty Bovan methods. Leave your felted reindeer jumper in the mothballs and grab the ‘Holiday Interrupted’ sequin mix instead. You will look better for it. Bovan has been rendering crocheted tinsel and yarn, garland and grosgrain aesthetics as editorial, wearable fashion for seven years now. So when we tell you to decorate your tree and dusty household interiors with Matty Bovan’s electric fringe ornaments in mirror or perspex intarsia, we fully expect you to jump to it.
Matty Bovan patchwork, fringed, acid house, electric sweaters have been a desirable acquisition since those Fashion East shows six years back. So guess what? He’s gifted you lurex and lambswool holiday Scottish knitwear that works for Christmas, Bank Holidays or Fabric London. Don’t get grand just because it’s Christmas. You really think you’re better than Erin O’Connor or Rosemary Ferguson? We remember what you wore to the 2023 holiday office party. Do better in 2024. Ornament your holiday concepts with Matty Bovan’s own history, gone sellable, contained in a snowglobe.
Core Values From Louis Vuitton Showcase Tennis Stalwarts
Novak Djokovic owns the ATP grand slam singles title record. Yet he never transcended victories to capture our emotions quite like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have. Celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz has riveted eyes and minds in a similar fashion to how matches between Nadal and Federer pluck you from the ambivalence of a drowsy tennis match and into the realm of a magical dialogue between dance partners. Louis Vuitton appropriately becomes the vessel where Leibovitz amalgamates fashion, non-fashion and totemic champions in the rarified air of its Core Values campaign. Italy’s Dolomites mountain range represents a mythical effect where both athletes relax from their relentlessly primal (Nadal) and precisely fluid (Federer) on-court characters. Forty-two combined Grand Slam titles turned boys into men, nuisances into rivals, and respective matches into odysseys. Leibovitz wipes that intensity away to expose an elegant humility between our 21st century warriors — respect as a penultimate core value.
‘In my career, I achieved more than I ever dreamt of, so at the end of the day, the legacy in terms of human beings is the most important value. Sharing it with Roger makes it special since he has been my biggest rival and now a close friend today. ’
— Rafael Nadal
‘It’s a unique opportunity to be working on this campaign with Rafa. To think we were such rivals, and now, as our tennis careers come to a close, we’re working together on something like this—it’s been an incredible journey. Being at the top of the Dolomites, feels symbolic in many ways. It really captures what this moment means to us.’
— Roger Federer
Louis Vuitton and Core Values transmit a testament to the journey of dreams. Nature and sport exude a frisson of savoir faire contained in mind, body and determination. Evinced from the relationship between Nadal, Federer and the intrepid eye of Leibovitz.
Issey Miyake Does Good Goods Good!
Six years ago, Issey Miyake’s highly technical approach to product manufacturing launched their Good Goods assortment. Issey Miyake’s Good Goods range puts their effortless sense of experimental ease from the fashion garments into bags that explore traditional handcrafted techniques. One such approach twists and lashes one technicolour thread into a machine washable basket tote, for example. This result becomes the Mokko and its drawstringed cousin, the Moko Pocket.
Additional Good Goods options extract daily use from simple structures and casual wear inspos — rectangles and the narogi jacket. The Box bag series came about by conceiving a simple structure like box shapes. Similar to Miyake pleats and prints, Box bag sliced inserts give a bit of fashion that ties into Good Goods’ overall aesthetic on pragmatism.
The Fuwa Fuwa is perhaps the most Issey Miyake upon first glance. Inspired by humble yet effortless cotton fabrics derived from the workwear jacket noragi, Fuwa Fuwa is constructed from a single rectangular piece of fabric whose pattern uses every metre. Best paired with Issey Miyake A/W 24 runway middle thirds, Fuwa Fuwa becomes a clever accessory inside and out of the Miyake universe.
Good Goods can be had at Issey Miyake, 33 Brook starting 2 December.
A New Jil Sander Holiday Campaign
On the heels of their pristine fall campaign, Jil Sander presents straightforward pragmatism of items designed to tantalise this holiday season. The new holiday campaign set against a primary colour backdrop features straightforward modernity from the cranberry-hued Goji Pillow bag and the hard crafted clarity from the snow white Jewel Zip Clutch. Topping the Jewel Zip Clutch with a black onyx stone restates house notions that resolve design ideas from start to finish — raw emotion from a metal closure (a tear) grounded by the stable characteristic of confident love that black onyx signifies. You could do a lot worse than gifting the calm control Jil Sander’s namesake founder operated under. Jil Sander silver ballerina flats engage wintertime festivities whether sophisticated or a champagne precursor to New Years’ Eve nocturnal possibilities. Come what may in the holiday weeks to follow, make sure Jil Sander’s giftable range of footwear, handbag accessories and zodiac necklaces become stocking stuffed sidekicks to the newly released Jil Sander retrospective monographs that should be lying under trees of distinction next month.
Kiko Kostadinov Goes West
Any fan of Kiko Kostadinov’s vision knew full well ambition would not limit shop expansion to Tokyo's Shibuya District alone. So when we received word the second Kostadinov store would open an American outpost in Los Angeles, our fashion-yet-non-fashion big bald head nodded ‘well obviously.’ On November 22, Los Angeles' Melrose Hill gallery district replicates the concept from Shibuya the ignites retail and visual art processes. Liminal spaces with liminal approaches keep art and commerce in flux to embrace new reactions when the visual dances with the physical. Multimedia artist Ryan Trecartin expands on his Tokyo Kostadinov residency studying materiality as a gut rehab for social realisations. Customers are invited to observe Trecartin’s first phase as the artist collabs with local LA artisans. Kiko Kostadinov interiors will evolve much like the collections do, a kitchen sink approach that involves material objects, Noland chevrons, art installations, the Ottoman Empire, menswear amongst womenswear and Asics trainers which make people go a bit mad. The Kiko experience that puts art and fashion in a relaxed gallery context is open now. Anyone who wants to gift the Scarpitta boots, size 44, can charge-ship to SHOWstudio immediately.
Walking With Contradictions At A.P.C.
The term ‘winter sandals’ sounds a lot like humblebragging. Two acts inherently at odds when combined together make strange sense in popular rhetoric this decade. Fitting then that French clothing label A.P.C. connects with Tokyo lifestyle supplier SUBU on a footwear capsule combining opposite elements (Cold weather is for boots, not sandals, right?) for the apposite, an atmosphere of classic relaxation. SUBU ‘fashions daily necessities’ with their mules that connect to indoor and (alleged) outdoor functions. Fortunately SUBU realises their unrestrained, easy footwear is not meant for lengthy moments outdoors. Sadly, not everyone will agree. So those of you determined to turn a slipper into a shoe can at least flex A.P.C. shearling-seeming wool, cushioned nylon and colours that imply outdoors, but are best worn comfortably indoors. This component of Japanese heritage (possibly a modern geta) and French utilitarian style (A.P.C. raw selvedge denim) can be found starting 25 November on the A.P.C website. Just remember to wear indoors only!
END., PUMA, and Mangal II Cook Up a Sizzling Collaboration
In a move as bold as Mangal II’s famed ocakbaşı, British retailer END. and global sportswear titan PUMA have teamed up with the iconic East London Turkish restaurant to mark its 30th anniversary. The result? A limited-edition spin on the classic PUMA Suede, served hot and fresh with a side of cultural storytelling.
Drawing inspiration from Mangal II’s 1994 roots, the Suede gets a Clyde Royal Blue makeover, with the restaurant’s signature proudly stamped in gold foil on the heel. A nod to the founding year, “94,” graces the right heel, while co-branding on the tongue and insole seals the deal. It’s a delectable blend of heritage and design, celebrating the culinary gem that Ali Dirik built and his sons Ferhat and Sertaç continue to elevate.
The collaboration delves deeper than just footwear. Ferhat and Sertaç journeyed to their ancestral Anatolia, exploring the culinary roots their father brought to Dalston in 1987. This homecoming, documented by END. x PUMA, highlights the rich flavours, culture, and family legacy that have shaped Mangal II.
With only 300 pairs available, these Suedes are set to fly faster than a freshly baked pide. Mark your calendars for 6 December—this drop is pure fire.