LD13 is a new German and New York City-based luxury brand. Under the direction of Creative Director Lisa Deurer, the brand focuses on craftsmanship, farm-to-wardrobe production, and a fully transparent supply chain. It aims to express individualism, encourage a culture of respect, and embrace imperfection. LD13 debuted its latest personality-driven commercial and high fashion pieces at New York and Paris Fashion Weeks with independent designer collective Flying Solo. 

I talked to Lisa Deur about sustainability in fashion. She says based on first-hand experience, fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world.

“The industry still produces and consumes at a rate that exploits our resources globally. It promotes a fast fashion cycle based on trends, creating piles after piles each week in Brooklyn’s warehouses with throw-away ‘second-hand clothes’ while also paying their workforce the bare minimum,” Deur says. 

After visiting a landfill in 2019 in Pennsylvania while still a fashion student at Parsons School of Design, she observed a mountain of thrown-away clothes. “Back then, I already asked myself the question, how do we want to be remembered?”

After graduating from fashion school, Deur started her avant-garde brand LD13, which envisions a world where luxury in fashion doesn’t express excess but rather heritage, art of the craft, and transparent supply chains. 

LD13 believes in smaller collections, primary colors not based on trends, a like-minded community, numbered pieces, and high-quality crafted products to create a less pollutant fashion brand in the future. 

“I am convinced that the LD13 Wardrobe and our innovation in sustainability allow exchanging ideas to inspire our society with new Farm to Fashion approaches. Be it in Europe or the States, we take pride in our transparent wool supply chain and our collaboration with craftspeople: we know the sheep whose wool we use and the people who produce our fabrics and create our garments. LD13 clothes are not based on trends and fast fashion; they are non-seasonal and last through generations. We want to be remembered for and develop products that are worth being made together with people who care about sustainability, heritage, diversity, and craftsmanship,” Deur says. 

Videographer Lisa Maslovskaya interviewed Lisa Deur for Urban Watch at LD13’s studio in Brooklyn. Watch the video here.

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Valette Studio’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection is nothing short of extraordinary. Inspired by the androgynous beauty and seductive allure of American actor Joe Dallessandro, as well as his effortless take on clothing– the new collection is an ode to sartorial freedom and emancipation, underlining playfulness and personality as opposed to stereotypes, rules, and uniformity.

Pop Art flowers, psychedelic motifs, and dynamic stripes are some of the collection’s main highlights, evoking the joyfulness and hedonism of the late 1960s. Skin-tight tank tops–one of Dallessandro’s everyday staples–and sleeveless body-conscious shirts emphasize the shoulders and chest, paired with pleated tailored poplin pants, skimpy shorts, or loose drawstring trousers. 

Even the tailoring feels more laid-back this season, with zip-up blousons, utility coats, denim blazers, and fitted vests complementing the overall silhouette. Terry cloth separates evoke the language of casual sportswear and lazy summer holidays. Toying with the idea of 1980s gender-fuck, as opposed to today’s genderless, the designer Pierre-François Valette crafts streamlined day dresses and cropped tops with an anatomical edge, as well as tailored vests exposing skin in unexpected ways. A ‘V’ is embroidered on several pieces this season, including striking silver leather.

On the accessory front, large denim messenger bags and substantial necklaces made out of metal, rope, and contrasting rings bring imperfection and the appeal of the ‘homemade’ to mind. Sensual and spontaneous, this summer collection exudes confidence, as well as a willingness to dress for oneself, and not for others.

I discovered Valette Studio by Pierre-François Valette last winter when they presented their Men’s 2022 Fall Collection, which was a mix of formal and casual, flavored by Pop Art, Andy Warhol, and gender-fluid performers like Freddy Mercury, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger. It was my favorite collection of that season and this new designer reminded me a  bit of the crowd-favorite French Jacquemus. 

Valette Studio’s clothes are for all genders, as around 60 percent of the designer’s customers are female. 

Pierre-François Valette founded Valette Studio in 2020. The graduate of the IFM trained with Isabel Marant and the house of Saint Laurent. He has an idiosyncratic “casual couture” aesthetic, in sync with new generations migrating between formal and streetwear. Each collection explores art and literature references, and although Valette Studio offers ready-to-wear styles, it functions in a modern “Maison de couture” spirit.

I talked to the designer to find out more about the brand and what he thinks about the future of fashion. 

I love how genderless your designs are. Who is your targeted customer base? Is it millennial or Gen Z creatives from the city? What’s the percentage of female/male customers who buy your clothes? 

Thank you very much for the compliment! Indeed, when I imagine a collection, I do not think of the feminine or the masculine, I imagine more an atmosphere, an environment, and a way of life in its entirety. People are free enough to know what they want to wear without us designers imposing on them a wardrobe that is for her and a wardrobe that is for him, right?!

My target clientele is a dynamic, positive generation that works, lives, loves, travels, discovers… and doesn’t want to change clothes three times a day. Clothes should liberate, not constrain. The look accompanies life, not clutters it. It is also for a generation in the perpetual migration of formality and streetwear.

My sales are about 60% women and the rest are men. But clothing has no gender for me, it has its own place.

What’s the vision for the brand in the next five years? Any plans on showing in New York?

My idea for Valette Studio in the next few years is that people can discover, wear, and buy my collections all over the world! I also hope to meet and continue to collaborate with photographers, videographers, painters, dancers, musicians, journalists, and writers… creation is something that is shared and experienced together.

To show in New York and all the major fashion capitals would be something incredible for my team and me. 

I’ve always loved NYC for its energy, its forward-thinking, and the freedom it represents. Many New York icons are a source of inspiration for me like Warhol has been for my AW22-23 collection with the New York Factory- which has attracted so much talent.

How do you see the future of fashion? Do you see Fashion Weeks eventually getting rid of “Men’s” or “Women’s” and just presenting all at the same time?

Fashion is, I think, something adaptable, modular, and therefore terribly free and modern. Fashion comes and goes. In this period of the health crisis, it has been able to adapt and continue to express itself and to be seen differently. However, I deeply believe that a garment is something concrete, real, that you have to touch, smell, and feel. I’ve always found fashion and everything it stands for to be absolutely exciting– of novelty, surprise, challenge, and above all dream and joy.

Fashion– and this is already the case– will gradually lean towards something asexual and return to what it is: fashion for expressing oneself, fashion for telling stories, fashion for dreaming. Simply fashion to get better, for every day.

Valette Studio is definitely on our radar and we are excited for what the future holds. 

The post The Next “It Designer” of Valette Studio on the Future of Genderless Fashion appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.

The contemporary fashion label ‘Situationist’ revealed their Fall/Winter collection at 2022 Paris Fashion Week. Committed to the integrity of their brand identity, the up-and-coming luxury fashion label prides itself on creating every garment as advanced as possible by introducing innovative shapes and textures to each collection.

Founded by Irakli Rusadze,  the brand continues to rise in popularity within the luxury fashion space amongst fashion connoisseurs who enjoy pushing style boundaries.

As the Georgian brand remains fully committed to their zero-waste production, we can expect them to always construct their garments using all reusable materials.

For the first time in the history of the brand, they presented one of the smallest collections to date, priding themselves on their positive carbon footprint. 

Although impressively progressive, the brand faces new challenges as political instabilities and the world health crisis of the past few years have directly affected their business. 

Situationist the label remains hopeful for world peace and for a shift in a positive direction for the fashion community despite tumultuous economic and social climates. 

Click to view slideshow.

To shop the latest collection of blazers, coats, dresses & more, head to the link below: 

https://situationistofficial.com/

Edited by Demi Vitkute.

The post Situationist Reveals Zero-Waste Collection During Paris Fashion Week 2022 appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.

The collection is inspired by the work of an iconic American artist Henry Darger (1892-1973) who portrayed the artistic expressions of the endless deeds of human interactions. 

Designer Hiroaki Sueyasu feels that Henry had been living with both his feet set in reality and non-reality, living in the real world alongside the insanity.

“Darger probably felt the urge in expressing the kingdom of the world of unreality, a clarification of a fantasy using his lifetime to express,” Sueyasu says. 

Through the collection, Sueyasu honors the lifestyle of an outsider who acts on one’s own faith without the influence of the social ideals and the existing framework.

Hiroaki Sueyasu launched Kidill in 2014, blending punk and skate culture, androgyny, and streetwear influences.

Photos: Ko Tsuchiya

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The set of the fashion show was airy, bright, colored-in baby blue. There was a blue house with a red chimney that had smoke coming out from it. A huge bed in the middle. A long dining table, where orchestra musicians were seated, playing Tyler, the Creator’s composed music. It was like Abloh’s own home in the heavens.  

The fog smoke blowing on the runway made it seem like the models were walking on clouds. The collection unfolded on 20 dancers and 67 models and the clothes ranged from two-piece suits and fur coats to sculpture, angel-like lace-wings or veils.

The inclusion of a Grim Reaper graphic was a breathtaking visual from a designer who created his legacy with the knowledge that he would be posthumously gazing down on his own mortality today. 

The show ended with all-white looks. For the finale, all models, performers, and the crew walked out to Tyler, the Creator’s well-fitting song “See You Again”… Lyrics gently piercing through the space: “Can I get a kiss? And can you make it last forever? I said, I’m ’bout to go to war, and I don’t know if I’ma see you again…” 

The audience erupted into a standing ovation, some most definitely wiping off their tears (including me).

See the once-in-a-lifetime performance for yourself.

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Agnès B. has been designing for over 40 years, and for 25, she dressed David Bowie. Her designs are a quiet French cool that have been praised by the press and sold internationally. Even after so many years, she’s overflowing with creativity. This season, through the creation of bright graphic looks designed for tasteful men who are not afraid to stand out, agnès b. celebrated Africa and paid tribute to the sapeurs.

Other stories of agnès b. SS20 portrayed strong characters: like the modern-day musketeer D’Artagnan with his minimalist iron-grey work-suit, or the gangster girl straight out of a Tarantino movie who wears her black silk suit against her bare skin. Even babies made a debut on the runway, although they were just dolls carried by the models. 

This new collection also called for softness, with a colour range going from discrete mauve to vivid orange, and coming in a variety of fabrics in which we feel at ease on hot days and that we elegantly layer when the wind blows.

Photos: Vedant Gupta for the Urban Watch Magazine

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The collection featured many sheer and ruffle dresses, covered in metallic micro polka dots and animal stripes. Double-breasted jackets and slouchy cardigans paired with longer metallic or lace skirts portrayed a modern, rebellious young woman, who not only defies the norms of femininity, but also the dress code of an institution. Hong Kong-based designer Anaïs Mak put her mark on this collection with irregularly shaped hearts that appeared as hoop earrings, custom buttons, appliqués, and even seductive nipple patches. 

The show ended with two models walking down the runway holding hands and sharing a white veil with flowers. This SS20 season in Paris, there were quite a few designers that added singular bridal pieces into their shows, but Jourden’s presentation was unique and progressive in a subtle way—we don’t often see two beautiful brides on the runway. The models walked to “L’amour Est un Oiseau Rebelle” (“Love is a rebellious bird”) from Carmen. Interestingly, the opera Carmen was based on a novella by Prosper Mérimée, who was a student at this very school—coincidence?

The clothes were retail-ready and had a provocative, free-spirited vibe embedded into them. Anaïs Jourden’s description of the show was a strange poem, that ended with “Let’s learn as we go along, let’s rebel and become.”

Photos: Vedant Gupta for The Urban Watch Magazine

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