Wistful Nostalgia Permeates Song For the Mute's S/S 22 Collection 'Avenue D’Ivry'
Tinged with nostalgia, the Australian brand's co-founder and creative director Lyna Ty looked to the Paris tower block she grew up in to inform her latest collection.
Tinged with nostalgia, the Australian brand's co-founder and creative director Lyna Ty looked to the Paris tower block she grew up in to inform her latest collection.
The past year has taught us to reflect and be grateful for what we have (and who we have) in our lives, with nostalgia permeating the minds and hearts of many, including Song For The Mute's creative director, Lyna Ty.
With a pair of rose-tinted glasses, Ty looked to her past to inform the brand's latest S/S 22 collection, referencing the style and attitude of those who she was surrounded by growing up. After all, our childhood memories are our first, informing many of our early opinions, thoughts and experiences. Ty recognises that, and through tender and loving consideration, chooses to humbly nod to the area she grew up in Paris, Les Olympiades, for this latest offering.
You only have to read the press release (or look at the clothes) to see there's sentimentality everywhere. In an excerpt, Ty notes:
'This chapter reflects on nostalgic memories of my time spent in Les Olympiades, the things and the people that make up this communal lifestyle - a way of living with our neighbours, together, within one building and the experience of what that was like. The contrast between individuals and their own narratives, their own aesthetics. The shared common areas, multiple floors, lobbies and lifts, intercoms and speakers, concierges and janitors, notice boards. Life in an apartment block.'
Directly inspired by some individuals Ty crossed paths with while living in the Tour Tokyo tower in the self-referred 'Asian Quarter of Paris', (Le Quartier Asiatique), - 'groups of tacky teenagers wearing matching tracksuits, jackets zipped up, collars popped' are recreated for Song For The Mute's S/S 22 collection. The collection's overall style, design, attitude and even lookbook don't venture too far from the pants-tucked-into-socks-and-sneakers-kind of vibe. Yes, there are some iconic nineties references - an era that has been making a definitive comeback for a while now in both music and fashion - but these are also styles which are 'iconically familiar' to Ty. After all, we're talking about the designer whose last summer campaign was 'An Ode To Familial Heritage', tapping into the idea of nostalgia once again.
Ty notes that the fabrics used draw upon 'my memories of the different cultures and aesthetics that I was surrounded by,' before going on to reminisce: 'I remember peeking through concrete modernist windows into the other-worldly interiors of neighbours apartments, seeing geometrically patterned wallpapers, black and white checkered kitchen floors - warped by a child's obscured point of view. There were old wooden tables with green plastic tablecloths. Aged brown leather couches with patina beyond their years. Through these small but many windows, you could read the story of these different individuals - the life of Les Olympiades. I wanted to infuse the collection with a light-heartedness, a carefree mischievousness of kids exploring the many intricacies of Les Olympiades; there are playful prints featuring handwritten notes or complaint letters from the lobby, warped VHS screens, persimmons from our fruit bowl and distorted sprinkler heads found within the collection.'
Nostalgic, whimsical and sentimental, the collection incorporates a pocket of nineties Paris within the world of today - colliding to inform a new sense of style for the Song For The Mute customer.