King Krule’s fourth album Man Alive! is available now on all major streaming services. The album is his first since 2017’s The Ooz and was preceded by three singles: “(Don’t Let the Dragon) Draag On,” “Alone, Omen 3,” and “Cellular.” The album chronicles the British artist’s new life as he embraces the trials of fatherhood (his daughter was born in March 2019) as well as his familiar themes of general young anguish and abandonment across 14 genre-evading tracks. His songcraft and vocals remain as idiosyncratic as ever, but there’s a hint of vulnerability in his latest work that permits his undeniable musicianship and craft to truly shine.
Listen to King Krule’s new album Man Alive! below.
To celebrate Paul Smith‘s 50th anniversary, the New York-based Maharam design studio is introducing new patterns inspired by the British brand on a new range of accessories. Together the brands will launch two new upholstery designs: songbird and wool check. Songbird reflects the designer’s love for botany — the classic floral is contrasted with a geometric checkered pattern. A slight departure from Smith’s famous rayon stripe designs, both prints are classically traditional. The floral option skews on the more romantic side while the check is inspired by Smith’s native UK. One standout is a wool check throw with fringe available in three colors, printed with a pattern that’s emblematic of Smith’s love for checkered surfaces, and sure to enhance any interior with the designer’s signature flair.
Paul Smith x Maharam Design Studio wool check throw will be available in March.
It’s been ten years since Alexander McQueen, one of the most acclaimed designers in history, passed away. His taste for the macabre combined with his masterful technical skill set him apart from his peers and established him as a tour de force whose influence continues to infiltrate the very fashion industry he sought to disrupt. From his polarizing bumster trousers to the silk skull scarves favored by celebrities in the ’00s to the dangerously high armadillo heels, his skill for plucking elements from the depths of his mind and translating them into breathtaking wearables was utterly revolutionary. Out of all the stars that emerged at the turn of the century, none burnt as brightly as McQueen.
To honor his legacy, we revisit some of his most significant runway moments.
Fall/Winter 1995 – Highland Rape
The Fall/Winter 1995 collection remains one of McQueen’s most controversial collections but it inarguably elevated his profile to an international audience. With a purposefully misleading title meant as a shock tactic (the collection was a metaphor for England’s invasion of Scotland), it was one of the earliest demonstrations of his undeniable ability to translate something dark and violent into something beautiful and desirable.
Spring/Summer 1999 – No. 13
Despite his aversion to the theatre, McQueen knew how to put on a show. Beyond the beauty of his designs, he always sought ways to elevate his clothing beyond the confines of a traditional catwalk and really bring them to life. The final look of his Spring/Summer 1999 collection, a white tulle dress that was splattered by two robots, remains one of his most referenced moments.
Spring/Summer 2001 – Voss
Guests of the Spring/Summer 2001 show were seated around a glass box and forced to stare at their reflections for an hour before the show started. Once it did, models marched around a sterile mental asylum-like stage dressed in delicate Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds-inspired garments. The grand finale was a recreation of Joel-Peter Witkin’s Sanitarium (1983) with a masked Michelle Olley reclined on a chaise lounge while breathing through a tube and surrounded by butterflies, delivering one of McQueen’s most powerful transgressive beauty moments.
Spring/Summer 2005
McQueen had included men’s looks in his collections for a number of seasons, but Spring 2005 was when he decided to officially launch his own men’s line. His adroit tailoring skills took center stage here, while his subversive tendencies shown in the form of painted faces and tattoo-printed muscle tees keep his menswear from being anything too traditional.
Spring/Summer 2010 – Plato’s Atlantis
Tragically, McQueen’s final collection was him at his best. Ten years after the robotic dress painting display, he once again utilized state-of-the-art technology to create enhanced animal prints and set the tone for the next decade in fashion. Some of the most memorable looks in this collection, including the armadillo heels, would be immortalized in Lady Gaga’s video for her then-unreleased single “Bad Romance,” which made its debut at the show.
Midtown gets a dose of British class with a new Ettinger residency opening this fall. Taking over the historic Turnbull & Asser Townhouse, the British tailoring label’s premiere Manhattan outpost, the leather goods brand is expanding its presence with an innovative and intimate retail experience. The residency carries a wide assortment of Ettinger’s signature leather accessories, including its wallets and luggage range, while serving as the site for the label’s first bespoke offering. Fittingly titled Ettinger Bespoke, the new in-store initiative will allow customers to personalize their own merchandise (they can choose from a selection of eight products) with on-site customization services including embroidery and embossing.
“This opportunity and the coming together of Ettinger and Turnbull & Asser in New York is undoubtedly one of our most exciting brand and retail collaborations,” Ettinger’s CEO Robert Ettinger said in a statement. “We are also delighted that Ettinger Bespoke is being offered alongside Turnbull & Asser’s bespoke services. We really see that as an exciting development for both brands as the appeal of bespoke gets ever bigger amongst our discerning customers.”
The Ettinger residency is open now at 50 E 57th St, NY 10022.
As Moncler Genius enters a new season, its newest collection features the work of British maximalist designer Richard Quinn. His obsession with color, opulence, and ’50s and ’60s-era couture is a curious new direction for the Italian brand. Quinn has splashed his bright patterns all over Moncler’s traditional ski garments and accessories, but with a distinctly ’80s spin. Deliberately kitsch, the pieces include quilted pajama suits with bejeweled buttons, huge padded coats in animal print, as well as duvet opera coats and even bodysuits. The result is an ultra-playful collection shot in a similar psychedelic style more resembling an intense sticker set. If Burning Man was set in the Italian Alps, this collection would be the perfect uniform.
Rumors of who will play the next 007 have been circulating for a bit now. The role has been played by Daniel Craig for over a decade, so it seems a reasonable time as any to pass the torch to introduce a new generation to the iconic character. While many have speculated that Idris Elba might get the part (as the first Black man to play the secret agent, this would be big) new reports say that British actress Lashana Lynch will succeed Craig in the next film. This makes her the first Black woman to play the lead role in the series ever. Alexa, play ‘God is a Woman.’
Lynch will star in the new film, titled Bond 25, which follows Craig’s resignation and introduces his successor. Little else is known about the production — Grace Jones allegedly walked off set while she was shooting a cameo — but Lynch (who also starred in Captain Marvel) seems a promising new lead to take the franchise into the future.
American skate brand HUF and American artist Mark Bodé have teamed to honor the Bodé family legacy in a graphic capsule collection. The late legendary artist Vaughn Bodé is known for influencing street art movements and pioneering underground comics, and this inspiration is clearly evident in the pieces.
Mark wants to carry on the family legacy by using classic Bodé characters in the garments. The collection includes a range of jackets, fleece, tees, hats, socks, and accessories, all incorporating the bright comic book aesthetic with vivid colors and funky illustrations. On top of the capsule, Bodé has created 12 limited-edition Painter’s Jackets, each replete with the artist’s signature work.
The HUF x Mark Bodé collection drops on June 20th at select stores and online. Check out some pieces from the collection above.
At a theatre in the Borough of Manhattan Community College — where I later learned Cardi B attended — models marched to the center of a dark stage in a military-like fashion to showcase the latest output from Japanese/American designer N. Hoolywood. The collection was a hybrid of deconstructed tailoring, tartan prints, colorful pill graphics, and a general anti-establishment aloofness — that is to say, punk as hell. But that’s not what designer Daisuke Obana had in mind.
“He didn’t really focus on punk this time,” Obana says backstage, through his unofficial translator and New York correspondent for the label Yasyuo Hibino. “So this is the expression from English culture — he thinks the suiting is very classic and traditional, but other things aren’t as well made. It’s just a summary of what England is to him — it’s not political.
Obana was inspired by a recent trip to London — his first in 18 years — when he rediscovered the city “like a tourist.” He went to World’s End, which was originally the SEX boutique founded by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren that was the premier hotbed for punk fashion in the ’70s. He went down Savile Row, the tailoring epicenter of maybe the world. All these British influences were clearly incorporated into the collection, but the designer’s own street-savvy edge kept it from ever appearing gimmicky.
There’s also a sustainable aspect embedded in the collection. And since fashion is among the most polluting industries, more designers are announcing sustainable initiatives as the threats of climate change increase and accelerate at an alarming rate. “Large corporations have so much leftover, they have to sometimes burn [excess] because people have to buy new collections,” he says, before explaining that the size of his label prevents this from ever being an issue. “Each season, [our team] really estimates how much they need to produce and there is not really any leftovers. To make samples, they used archive [material], or leftover fabric from previous seasons — they reuse everything to make new collections. So sustainability is quite normal in that sense. It’s not a large [statement], but practical.”
There’s an obvious parallel between designing new pieces using discarded pieces or archived materials and punk DIY culture. The whole thing is very ‘Rip it up and start again.’ But there was a demeanor in the presentation and the collection that transcended it beyond any one particular influence, once again demonstrating the label’s strength in combining the classic with the cutting-edge.
Alfred Dunhill was a man of unwavering tastes—specifically tobacco, cars, and luxury goods. In the 1920s, he combined his passions by launching Dunhill’s Motorities (a mash-up of ‘motorist’ and ‘priorities’) to sell everything from car horns to overcoats. By the 1950s, he shifted focus to create artful gadgets for smoking, which led to the invention of the Aquarium lighter. The one-of-a-kind creations are made from Perspex and depict undersea motifs—all handmade by artist Ben Shillingford. Though the lighters have become increasingly rare (pieces now easily fetch thousands of dollars), their famed imagery has been reworked for a modern audience on a collection of lounge shirts, swim trunks, and leather pieces. The range of hues evokes the season perfectly, such as a bomber jacket in bright sky-blue and a satchel in sea-green.
When it comes to creative campaigns, British designer Craig Green has long opted out of shooting models, instead preferring to showcase the clothes in their own compositions. The latest campaign (shot by Dan Tobin Smith) is no different and features prints from the Spring/Summer ’19 collection displayed in museum-ready arrangements.
Constructed with straw, wood, and paint, the pieces explore themes of ephemeral power, displaying various figures in battle with animals in a near triptych-like presentation. It’s definitely a captivating and cinematic way to showcase the latest output from the creative label. Check out more of the images below.
Opting out of a runway presentation earlier this year, Alexander McQueen has released a lookbook for its Fall/Winter ’19 collection. An ode to several British eras of the 20th century — from ’50s Post-War to ’80s New Wave — the collection is a marriage of influences that celebrates heritage and craft.
Workwear is a core influence on the collection — a rich, pink boiler suit subverts the traditional piece with New Wave edge, while suits adorned with oversized floral prints offer a romantic take on the ordinary. Trench coats are updated in alternative formats, including bold color-blocked styles and in glossy leather fabrics that expand upon convention. Eveningwear is elevated to new heights with intricate chandelier crystal embellishments on tuxedo jackets that are as majestic in their showmanship as in their craft. This attention to detail extends to the jewelry, mainly earrings and cuffs, which provides both an elegant garnish to the more orthodox pieces and a rebellious accent to the formalwear.
Louise Trotter, British designer who previously worked at JOSEPH, has been named the new creative director for Lacoste. This marks the first time the brand with the crocodile has appointed a woman in the position — progress! And Trotter’s penchant for relaxed, elegant, and sophisticated sophisticated make her an ideal fit for the preppy contemporary label beloved by European tourists. Her first collection for the label will be presented during the next Paris Fashion Week in February.
