Style findings: November dispatches from the Wallpaper* fashion team

Joy ride
21 November

Over the summer, our Instagram feeds were inundated with beachside images featuring the towels and t-shirts in Christoper Kane’s mood-lifting More Joy capsule collection. The bitter brace of winter may be now upon us, but lucky for us, the London-based designer is bringing some festive cheer to chillier proceedings, with the launch of his brand’s More Joy pop-up shop on Shoreditch High Street in East London. Expect a swather of scintillating stocking fillers, that riff on the kinky overtones that the label has drawn on in recent seasons, from ‘Sex’ slogan baubles and eye masks, to ‘Special’ slogan silk pyjamas in an array of white, red and black tones. This weekened, we’ll be getting toasty with a ‘More Joy’ logo hot water bottle and matching snuggly socks. Even more heart warming, 100% of proceeds from the cards sold at the pop up shop will be donated to Whitechapel Mission, which has served the homeless in East London for 143 years.

Writer: Laura Hawkins

Draw a line
20 November

Illustrator Blair Breitenstein primarily works in a small sketchbook, bringing expressionist energy in layers of crayon, marker and acrylic to fashion images, like a model wrapped up in Fendi balaclava or  adding layers of lustrous red colour to a full pout with a YSL lipstick. The NYC-based illustrator has worked with a host of brands, from Prada to MAC Cosmetic, and now she has pumped up her sketchbook doodles, with a large scale installation at Swiss brand Hanro’s boutique in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. A series of hand-painted murals draw on the classic and comfort-giving forms of the label’s loungewear and underwear and bring an elegant, animated energy to the designs. ‘My work for the Hanro store is inspired by the book Hanro - The Story of Passion. By using this book as inspiration, I was able to celebrate the heritage of Hanro and stay true to my vintage inspired aesthetic,’ says Breitenstein.

Writer: Laura Hawkins 

Tickled pink
19 November

If you visited Sanlitun Square in Beijing on 6 November, you couldn’t have missed the launch of Valentino’s new flagship store. Covering 417 sq m over two floors in an angular glass building, creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli worked with British architect David Chipperfield to elevate the new boutique’s interiors. With high ceilings, monochrome terrazzo flooring broken up by the occasional rug, and Carrera columns, the boutique oozes pure Valentino vision. Custom colour palettes, textures, surfaces and specific lighting solutions differentiate each space, and the mood shifts as you traverse through the boutique to peruse their stock hanging neatly from utilitarian steel rails. Furnished with white marble tables, velvet sofas, and a fuzzy, bubblegum-pink settee we wanted to take a perch on, the store delivers eye-catching juxtaposition with its accoutrements. 

With the opening, Valentino is also launching a capsule collection, aptly named Daydream. Containing ready to wear items, accessories, and gadgets in hues of red, black, and white, all signed with the ’Valentino Daydream’ logo, the collection will be exclusively available in the Sanlitun boutique and online.

Writer: Josefin Forsberg

Bask(et) in glory
18 November

The archetypal basket is one of those garden-variety items that accompany us through life. It makes an appearance in the laundry room, the grocery store, and in the gardening shed. It was this ordinary object that originally sparked designer Célia Torvisco’s imagination.
 
‘One day I found a grocery basket filled with beach toys on the streets of New York. I picked it up and thought it would make a great bag. It would be something I would wear myself if it had an inner pouch to keep all of my belongings safe,’ she says. 

With a background in industrial design, her street find ultimately led to the launch of her eponymous New York-based brand in October of 2019. ‘From developing paper mock-ups for the proportions to working on 3D models to refine details, my experience in Industrial design really helped me develop my original ideas and to better communicate with my factory,’ Torvisco says.
 
Influenced by slice-of-life situations, the goal became to produce everyday objects and turn them into accessories with a twist, each collection inherently inspired by a trivial thing. We can’t wait to see what ordinary objects she gets her hands on next.

Writer: Josefin Forsberg

Elephant in the room
15 November

Meissen, the oldest porcelain manufacturer in Europe, takes us to the African plains in their new collaboration with Boss. Using the wildlife-inspired works of Meissen’s sculptor Maximilian Hagstotz as their foundation, the brands have produced a collection centred on graphic patterns in black-and-white of the ‘Big Five’ – A term in game hunting referring to the lion, the leopard, the rhinoceros, the elephant and the buffalo. 

The five animal motifs appear in embroidered, jacquard and printed form throughout, on cashmere and silk, while leather accessories combine the collection’s animal designs with an HB monogram. Included in the collaboration is also a set of five cups printed with the black-and-white animal patterns. 

We can’t wait to cuddle up on the couch with Ernest Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa, chronicling his journey amongst the wildlife on the continent, sipping on a hot drink from one of the collection’s cups and daydreaming of our own exotic adventures. It’s also a treat to know that in recognition of the collaboration theme, Hugh Boss will make a donation to the charity Elephants for Africa. 

Writer: Josefin Forsberg
 

Browns takes Berlin
14 November

A hyper-connected, uber-informed generation like today’s needs more than just a good digital feed to double tap and a selection of great kicks to cop. The value is in the meeting of URL and IRL. Cut to pioneering retailer Browns who launched their semi-permanent, roaming retail concept Nomad with an outpost in Shoreditch, East London in 2017. Last year they opened their first ever store outside of the UK inside Los Angeles’s iconic Fred Segal boutique. This weekend they have taken over an abandoned supermarket in Berlin’s Mitte neighbourhood with a focus on punkish, new-wave sustainability.

‘With Nomad we stay true to the environment in which it exists by fusing local and international partners and brands together to create a multi-sensory experience,’ Holli Rogers, CEO of Browns says. Together with Berlin based communications agency Reference Studios, they have created Browns Berlin – a three-day experiential space that will host DJ sets, art performances, site specific sculpture and a range of panel discussions and activities. The Amsterdam-based fashion collagist Duran Lantink – who has become known for his hybridised take on eco fashion – has set up a post-apocalyptic atelier. He will host one-to-one consultations, providing visitors with an opportunity to revitalise and rework pieces from their own wardrobes until Sunday. Louis Loveless will be tattooing in a red-light soaked back room and Morgan Hasenfuß (aka Truth and/or Consequences) will be reading ready palms.

Browns is due to celebrate its 50th birthday next year, but the key to its success is in looking ahead. ‘It has always been a place of discovery where luxury and next generation talent sit side by side – it’s a place where music and art have always been platformed too,’ Tyler Psarras, brand engagement director says. ‘We’re on the precipice of a new dawn. We want to bring all of those experiences into one space because we want to celebrate creativity! Nomad isn’t just a physical activation of clothes in a different environment. The product is the souvenir of the experience.’ 

Photography: Samuel Smelty. Writer: Dal Chodha

Market research
13 November

Last Christmas, we made a festive pitstop at London’s Harrods, where Dolce & Gabbana had dreamt up a goodie-filled winter wonderland. But this year, the label have looked a little closer to Mayfair, filling the ground floor of its Central London flagship on New Bond Street, with an array of festive stocking fillers that nod to its Sicilian heritage. Fancy a Kitchen Aid emblazoned with exuberant Italian prints, a Smeg fridge adorned with murals of Sicilian lemons, or simply something to line the stomach when sipping a Christmas Limoncello? For this, sweet treats and mouthwatering pasta from the Milanese bakers Fiasconaro and heritage pasta makers Pastificio di Martino are the answer. Even those who dread the holiday season won’t be able to pass up these treats, which lucky for shoppers, are available to purchase until January 2020.

Writer: Laura Hawkins

Fantastic(al) beasts
12 November

Jonathan Anderson has long had an affinity with the Arts and Crafts Movement. In recent seasons, the creative director’s Loewe capsule collections have celebrated the work of British pioneers of the decorative trend, which flourished from 1880, including Charles Rennie Mackintosh and William Morris. London-born ceramicist William De Morgan was a lifelong friend of Morris, and when creating pottery and tiles, experimented with medieval motifs, innovative glazing techniques, and dreamt up imaginary bird and animal prints. Now, De Morgan’s work forms the inspiration behind Loewe’s latest capsule collection, which is brimming with floral arabesques and fantastical creatures, from dodo intarsia knitwear to knitted beanies with horns. We’re going particularly wild for this woolen dragon’s tail and matching gloves, plus this balaclava which resembles a noble knight’s helmet. Fantastic, fantastical forms indeed.

Writer: Laura Hawkins

Lay of the land(scape)
11 November 

Isabella Cawdor and Stella Tennant, the creative duo behind Holland & Holland are well trodden when it comes to terrain of the British landscape. Each of the label’s outdoors-focused collections begins with the assessment of the natural environment. Now, in a picturesque partnership, the duo have teamed up with Sotheby’s to launch an exhibition showcasing artworks by Modern British artists, including Barbara Hepworth, William Scott and Edward Wadsworth, which focus on the interplay between landscape and abstraction.

‘For me there is a great affinity between Isabella and Stella’s aesthetic and that of a number of British artists from the 20th century, from the colours they use - those deep greens, slate greens and russet reds that are instantly evocative of this wind-swept rain-soaked land- through to their interest in texture and irregular pattern and they distinct quality of materials,’ says Simon Hucker, Sotheby’s Modern British Art specialist. The pieces are on view at Holland & Holland’s Bruton Street store in Mayfair until Wednesday, and should you fancy investing in an artwork yourself, the Sotheby’s sale takes place 19-20 November. 

Pictured, Abstractions/Kissable, Edward Wadsworth (1947). Writer: Laura Hawkins

Nineties knockout
7 November

In recent seasons, Nineties minimalism has been a knockout aesthetic on the catwalks. Just look to the cult Instagram account @90s anxiety, which is dedicated to the fashion of the era, or the pared-back, seductive silhouettes of emerging designers across the globe. Giorgio Armani launched the label’s first handbag in 1995, and the angular essence-focused design was a elegant emblem of the decade. Now, the label has relaunched its signature La Prima shape, updated in a range of styles from a shell clutch to enlarged, rectangular version. Materials abound too, with the style available in silk, lacquer and even lizard. Now, instead of scrolling Instagram for Nineties nostgalia, we suggest you invest in the La Prima, and personify it yourself instead.

Writer: Laura Hawkins

Surgical precision
6 November

There’s something surgical about Enfants Riches Déprimés’ flagship boutique in Paris. The rebellious label’s latest outpost on  Rue Charlot riffs on operating room-meets-boudoir aesthetic. Masterminded by French architect Didier Faustino – whose recent project’s included pink marble and green furnishing-focused bar in Ghent, Belgium – the two storey space is swathed in  stainless steel, dark marble and icky green furnishings. We suggest you take in all the antiseptic details on a Pierre Paulin sofa, where you’ll be able to survey the store’s leather jackets and bovver boots, which appear suspended on its slick surfaces. We think it’s just what the doctor ordered.

Writer: Laura Hawkins

Walnut wonder
5 November

As hybrids go, it’s difficult to top Sartoria Genttio’s handsome debut flagship store in Beijing. Designed by Tokyo-based studio I-IN, the bijou atelier smoothly channels the brand’s unusual MO of Italian silhouettes as interpreted by its Japanese creative director, Hashikawa Tatsuyoshi. Fashion accessories and bolts of cloth are displayed in pleasing regimented stacks, whilst suits are shown off in vitrines cut in walnut and beige marble. A warm sea blue, evoking the Sea of Naples, runs through the rooms, though we’re particularly taken by the dressing rooms, their cloistered volumes cut in stone to create a sense of being in a soigné cave once the doors are closed. 

Photography: Tomooki Kengaku. Writer: Daven Wu

Function forward
4 November

If you’re someone who strives to saunter straight from a dip in the ocean into a downward dog, from the floor stretch of a Pilates class into a the nook of a poolside sun lounger, then Prism has the pieces for your versatile vacation. This year, the London based swim label celebrates its 10th anniversary (a celebration that has also seen the launch of sustainable sunglasses), and founder Anna Laub has released a capsule collection of pared-back separates from crop tops to leggings, briefs to bandeau leotards, which triple up as both swimwear, sportswear and workoutwear. These sleek, multifunctional pieces are sustainable not only in their all-activities élan, but also in their manufacturing. They are created using a seamless 3D knitting process which results in minimal offcut waste, and the collection’s forest green, candyfloss pink and chocolate brown hues are created using an eco-dye technique. Each piece – launching exclusively with Matchesfashion.com – is chlorine-resistant, quick dry, breathable and sweat-wicking, which meaning you’ll be able to run, sun and swim to not just your heart’s, but your body’s content too.

Writer: Laura Hawkins

Stand to attention
1 November

From Bottega Veneta to Isabel Marant there was a militaristic mindset on the A/W 2019 catwalks, and we’re particularly on the prowl for Aspesi’s ‘Replica 50’ jacket, a tiger stripe-inspired style which draws on the Italian label’s signature field silhouette, and also celebrates its five decade anniversary. We suggest you make a roar in this camouflage version, which is swathed in khaki, black and orange stripes. It’s sure to win any style drill whether you’re sauntering in the city or on expedition in the great outdoors.

Photography: Merjin Hos. Writer: Laura Hawkins