Fashion
This month’s fashion must-knows, from straw hats to swimmers and sandals.
Birkenstock
Germany
Footwear
Our favourite German sandals brand has gone to the beaches of Italy for this collaboration with Hotel Il Pellicano, a storied five-star establishment in the Tuscan coastal town of Porto Ercole. The collection features seven takes on Birkenstock’s Arizona sandal, with versions rendered in engraved leather, red or black satin, and navy waterproof EVA plastic.
birkenstock.com
Erik Schedin
Sweden
“Being a minimalist doesn’t exclude working with colours,” says Erik Schedin, founder of the Swedish trainer label launched in 2004. Schedin’s latest is a canvas lace-up in shades including green and pink. “The mismatch between the canvas upper and the rubber sole, with the coloured laces, looks great,” he says.
erikschedin.com
Prada
Italy
Jewellery
Fancy a banana dangling from a delicate 18-carat gold chain? Or perhaps a pair of earrings adorned with gilded rabbits, guitars or robots with 18-carat diamond eyes? Such is the world of Prada’s first fine-jewellery collection. Unveiled in May, it sees the Milanese house take signature zany motifs from its ready-to-wear designs and dip them in gold, stud them with diamonds and string them from necklaces, hoops and bangles. Prada has done costume jewellery for years but this is its first foray into higher-end designs. The fine-jewellery market is booming – Giorgio Armani and Gucci both debuted lines recently – and Prada’s 20-piece collection is a fun, welcome addition.
prada.com
Gabriela Hearst
USA
Menswear
“It’s the best of the best,” says Gabriela Hearst of her debut menswear line, which includes T-shirts, suiting, sweatshirts and hoodies crafted from cashmere. Hearst, who grew up on a ranch in Uruguay, launched her New York womenswear line in 2015. Menswear follows the same thinking: unembellished wardrobe staples made from the finest Japanese, Italian and Uruguayan materials (including wool from her family’s sheep farm).
gabrielahearst.com
Ibeliv
France
Liva Ramanandraibe moved from Madagascar to France to study when he was 16 but his homeland remained important to him. In 2013 he launched woven-hat and bag company Ibeliv from his studio in Avignon and made sure his products retained a Madagascan edge. His mother works with a team of more than 600 women in Madagascar who cultivate the island’s unique Raffia palm trees and create accessories from their fronds.
ibeliv.fr
Capital drains of colour
by Jamie Waters
“Theme: sassy garden party,” read the invitation to my friend’s wedding. A scan of my wardrobe revealed a decidedly sans-sass sea of navy and olive. Thus, on a recent weekend, for the first time in a long time, I shopped in London with real purpose. How hard could it be to find a hit of colour to give my ensemble some finger-snappin’ attitude?
Very, it turns out. I was keen to peruse small multibrand shops but London is sorely lacking on this front. It’s beset by the same woes as the world’s other fashion capitals: big cities with big rents make tough environments for pint-sized retailers. I can recommend great menswear shops (the sort with selections that reflect their owners’ personal tastes) in Toulouse or Bologna yet, if someone asks for a London or Paris tip, I’m left stammering. And good London outposts continue to close. My favourite, Soho’s Other/Shop, shuttered this year, while Kinoko closed in late 2017. There are still some nice spots – Hostem, Open As Usual, Sunny Siders and Nepenthes, as well as our sister shop Trunk – but none stocked the sass I was after.
The city’s healthiest stores are larger, more institutional multibrand retailers such as voguish Browns and streetwear specialist End. They have a point of view in a way that department stores don’t, yet boast a varied enough offering (plus sizeable online shops) to move products en masse.
My faith in London was ultimately restored when I went to church – aka Dover Street Market – on the Sunday. I spent several hours drifting between the museum-like floors; I was particularly taken with the cheery selection from New York label Noah. I couldn’t quite find my wedding outfit but the whole experience was so enjoyable that it didn’t matter. I’m afraid to say I ended up ducking in a mono-brand shop (Acne Studios) for a sassy pink T-shirt – but I’ll be returning to dsm on a Sunday soon to stock up on Noah and soak up the vibes.
Man-tle
Australia
Shop
Husband and wife Larz Harry and Aida Kim (pictured), co-founders of Australian brand Man-tle, possess that rare thing in fashion: the ability to create distinctive designs. The couple met in Tokyo and their pieces, which are made in Japan, have a Japanese experimental flair combined with industrial ruggedness. Shirts are coated in stiff paraffin wax that softens over time to create a worn-in look, while suits are made from starched canvas similar to the material used in judo uniforms. There are quirky adornments aplenty, including brass buttons for jacket fastenings and strips of seatbelts to zhoosh up shirt plackets.
They present their men’s and women’s designs in Paris showrooms yet are based in Harry’s hometown of Perth (Kim is South Korean). And now they’ve consolidated their brand, which was founded in 2016, by opening a shop in the Western Australian capital. The store-cum-studio is in a heritage-listed building and sells Man-tle alongside Japanese brands, such as Arts&Science. “We wanted a shop to better communicate our world and be a mascot for our brand,” says Harry.
man-tle.com
Beach-ready boardies
1.
Riz
This London label combines playful summery patterns with sharp tailoring and sustainable thinking – its shorts are sewn in Portugal using recycled and recyclable materials.
2.
Ermenegildo Zegna
The Italian powerhouse’s swimwear collection includes trunks in bold block shades or decorated with lively watercolour illustrations.
3.
Qvinto
Lisbon native João Filipe Jorge looked to the eye-catching tile patterns throughout the city to inspire the prints for his beachwear label.
rizboardshorts.com
zegna.com
qvintobeachwear.com
