“Wait — more new collections?!” you’re probably thinking. And you’re right — after what has felt like an interminable season of fashion shows, your appetite is probably pretty close to sated. We would urge you, however, to make some room for the treat we have in store. You see, while fashion months are of course an ideal time to discover the chicest offerings from all your favourite brands, the sheer quantity of clothes — and, increasingly, the number of attention-grabbing gimmicks — means that a good number of collections that are well-deserving of a spotlight get lost in the fray, never quite reaching the eyes of those that would appreciate them most.
In an attempt to do our part to remedy that, we’ve put together this handy list of some of the standout collections by independent names that may have slipped beneath your radar. And that will then be the last of the SS23 collections — we promise!
Juntae Kim
Since we first saw his graduate collection file down the runway at the Central Saint Martins MA show last year, we have been unabashedly obsessed with the ruggedly sensual, meticulously executed menswear of Juntae Kim. SS23 sees the Korean-born, London-based designer release his first full post-graduation collection, Garden Punk: Freedom is Reality, a homage to Vivienne Westwood’s early punk manifestos.
Nodding to his sartorial forebear, references to historical dress from the 18th and 19th century are reinvigorated, with corset ribbing built into stonewashed denim jackets and trousers, and shirts in denim, poplin and suede given the snug, nip-waisted fit of pourpoint jackets. Elsewhere, a spirit of vintage rock’n’roll – references, Juntae says, to bands like The Ramones, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin – comes through strong in mod-ish silhouettes comprising slashed cropped trenches and bulky, armoured bombers, worn with shirts, skinny denim ties and bootcut jeans.
Gerrit Jacob
Fashion’s yen for kitsch and tack is hardly new, but few are broaching these themes with quite the same nuance as Berlin-based designer Gerrit Jacob. Graduating from the Central Saint Martins MA in 2019, and then spending two years working under Alessandro Michele on men’s tailoring and celebrity dressing at Gucci, last season saw the designer launch his namesake label with A Secret Between Us, a body of work that explored themes of generational anxiety and nonsense, and demonstrate the designer’s honed leatherworking skills.
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For his sophomore collection, Raised By Wolves, is an expansion of the designer’s helter-skelter design language, applying it to new textiles and techniques. Nodding to the like-titled book by photographer Jim Goldberg – a gritty documentation of homeless youth in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the 1980s – the collection sees Gerrit fuse the graphic kitsch he’s known for – airbrushed illustrations of snarling lions, phoenixes and panthers lifted from funfairs he frequented as a teen in his native Hamburg – with a rougher edge. Baggy leather jackets with sagging elbows and boxy panelled trousers bring a moody heft to the collection, a mood tempered by oversized jersey skate tees, sultry satin off-shoulder tops and screen-printed denim jeans. The end result is gleefully chaotic fashion that truly mirrors the times in which it is created.
VeniceW
Conceptual esotericism is something that Venice Wanakornkul, the mind behind VeniceW, has long excelled in. Since launching her label in 2018, she’s created clothes underpinned by conceptual frameworks that leave you scratching your head – clothes that raise question marks, if you will. Her latest collection, Question Mark Island, sees her lean full tilt into the eyebrow-raising universe she’s crafted, asking: what would clothes wish for if they were sentient beings, too.
A step further in her quest to anthropomorphise clothing – previous collections have seen hoodies hop on tour boats and mummify themselves in linen bandages – the collection amounts to a sartorial cadavre exquis, with garments featuring from multicoloured fringed bobs to mohawks and doily fringes; ghost faces to googly eyes. Elsewhere, VeniceW staples like the low-key viral Crow bag and the designer’s spiral-cut hemp trousers return, grounding the eccentric offering in the staples that have earned Venice her name-to-know status. Wondering what to pick from the collection? Well, just picture yourself as a hoodie, and ask yourself: what would you want to wear?
Paula Canovas del Vas
While perhaps not quite as deeply immersed in surreality as, say, VeniceW, there’s nonetheless an alluring uncanniness to the work of London-based, Paris-presenting label Paula Canovas del Vas. For its SS23 collection, the label doubled down on its signatures of subtly askew silhouettes in arresting kaleidoscopic hues – think lime green satin crop tops with gathered bell sleeves, single-sleeved mini-dresses with stiff bubble hems and georgette panelled jeans in ombré fuchsia, and undulating nylon overcoats and maxi skirts in muddy greens and inky blue-black. Ruching recurs throughout as a keystone motif, running up the inseams of cropped leggings and zigzagging across an iridescent draped midi-dress, while a sense of theatricality is introduced through spike-shouldered boleros that echo the designer’s iconic horn-soled Diablo shoes.
Aaron Esh
This season saw Aaron Esh, one of London menswear’s hottest-tipped talents, present his latest collection by way of a lookbook — shot by Chris Lensz, styled by Jack Collins and art directed by Jamie Reid — that more than matched up to the sharp execution of the clothes he creates. Riffing on the codes of uniform and the quotidian looks we see pass us by on our cities’ streets, familiar garments are lifted with a subtle sensuality. Tailored wool waistcoats are reimagined as button-down halter-tops that flaunt the décolleté and are paired with wide-legged olive cargos. A single-lapelled tailored jacket in dry cream wool swoops around the body into a neat double-breasted fastening, and gently flared trousers are constructed with asymmetrically wrapped miniskirts layered from the waist. It’s the kind of fashion that acknowledges and caters to the more nuanced, delicate masculine dress sensibility we’re increasingly seeing gain traction, but is confident enough in its understanding of it to not have to shout it from the rooftops.
All-In
All-In, the experimental upcycling label-cum-publication by Benjamin Barron and Bror August, has been a name whispered about the Paris circuit for a couple of seasons now – a fact attested to by the fact that industry bigwigs like Maryam Nassir Zadeh and i-D senior fashion editor-at-large Lotta Volkova have long-since figured among its most ardent supporters. This season, though, felt like a real coming-of-age for the young label – a fact that the pair seem pretty convinced of themselves, if the theme of their collection – “Debutante” – was anything to go by.
Upcycled from vintage garments, each one-off look seemed to channel an endearing bedroom dress-up fantasy, dreamt up by girls on the cusp of womanhood. A candy-floss pink mohair cable-knit sweater was slashed and gathered at the midriff —toeing a line between sugared innocence and knowing sexiness — and paired with a white skirt with a tumbling flounced hem. Microskirts were cobbled together from gothy studded belts, with black lace négligées descending from beneath, twee patchwork quilts became bandeau tops draped diagonally across the shoulder, and yards of tinsel became a strapless babydoll dress. Clothes to wear if you really want to go All-in for the upcoming festive party season.
Selasi
Though blockbuster shows like Raf Simons and Alexander McQueen may have garnered most of the attention during London’s unofficial second fashion week — AKA Frieze — one the ones that those in the know were especially excited for was the sophomore presentation of Selasi, the brand founded by creative polymath Ronan McKenzie. The collection, presented in the airy hall of St John at Hackney – a church turned performance venue – built on the understatedly sensuous tone that defined the label’s debut. Sinuous draped garments in earth-toned jerseys and leathers hugged the wearer’s bodies, with the opening look – a taupe flow of fabric that crisscrossed the chest and hooded the head, worn with a mini-skirt with a sweeping – merging a heightened elegance with bold, 90s starlet sexiness – Alaïa meets Aaliyah, if you will. Elsewhere rich chocolate leather cut into cosy tracksuits and cut-out dresses, and scarlet column silhouettes elegantly framed their wearers’, suggestion potency and strength.
Song For The Mute
Looking at the world in its current state, it’s only understandable that you may be feeling a little trepidatious about whatever the hell is next in store. There is, however, a measure of comfort to found in the fact that this is not the first or last time that humanity has faced crippling collective existential angst. In fact, just as recently as the turn of the millennium, the whole planet was freaking out about the so-called ‘Y2K bug’ and the threat of technological and social collapse it brought 🙂
Rather than lean full tilt into the anxiety of the times, for their latest collection, 1999, Australian brand Song For The Mute chose to look to fraught transitional periods like these as times of renewal and possibility. Drawing on a range of 90s sci-fi films, the offering comprises exquisitely crafted garments that serve as subtle ciphers for speculative futures. Knits in grainy metallic knits that speckle like static screens nod to a techno-dystopia, while eerie embroideries and jacquards are imbued with an extraterrestrial feel to them. Elsewhere, aged leather jackets, weighty veined denims and cold-dyed jerseys have a sense of timeless humanity to them, almost like future relics that could be worn by battlegoing-heroes millennia from now. Sci-fi-feeling clothes for sci-fi-feeling times!