Have you spent as much time as us wondering what to wear now that the world’s back open (well, sort of…)? Well, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again — SS22 is the season of sexy! Whether it’s Thigh Guy Summer à la Prada, or Fendi’s bare, toned torsos, next summer is all about confident exhibitionism — showing some skin. Need further proof? Just look to London label av vattev’s latest collection, Soul Control.
After last season’s voyage to the moon, drawing on the optimism that those in the past looked to the future with, this season sees the designer get his feet back on terra firma, and retrain his focus on the bounty of good times to be enjoyed right here, right now. “I really wanted to focus on ideas around going out again, and finally being able to party!” says Antonio Vattev, the label’s namesake founder, “all the things that we’ve missed and desperately craved for the past year and a half.”
The result is a lighter, brighter take on the assured, 70s-inflected sexiness that has been the label’s lodestone reference point since Antonio’s first post-CSM collection for AW20. This time, though, it’s time filtered through a prism of scanty 90s celeb style. It’s the vibe you get from the flashes of flesh seen throughout the collection — snippets of abs, thighs and décolleté that call the more daring outfits of Lil’ Kim to mind. Where the brand’s newfound sense of extroversion makes itself most strongly felt, though, is through the palette, with splashes of chartreuse, citron and volt green colouring everything from polycotton tailoring to faux-leather bralets, summoning an inescapable cheeriness.
On the womenswear front — this season being the first time av vattev has offered a full wardrobe in the category — this optimism is compounded by the designer’s sculptural drapes, demonstrating a lighter, more effortless side to Antonio’s approach than we’ve seen in previous collections where geometric pattern cutting was the main event. That can still be seen across the board here, though its severity is tempered by the romantic form of the collection’s signature detail, an overhanging twisted chevron that cuts across the front panels of a jacket with dropped poet sleeves and a halter neck vest dress, nodding to the lozenge motifs that recur across av vattev’s body of work.
On the menswear side of things, the same detail appears on zippered fleece and tailored wool jackets, while the coats with warped plackets we saw last season in arboreal leather are reimagined here in a lightweight satin. Rounded out with casual-luxe pieces like silk gazar hoodies with low-swooping necklines; embroidered ivory leatherette separates; and a leather baguette-cum-hobo bag, trimmed with upcycled Bulgarian Halishte wool and created in collaboration with Spanish leather label Brussosa; this is av vattev’s most comprehensive, accomplished collection to date.
