In the middle of the sunlit show space, a five-strong team in AK for VW tabard T-shirts was busily tearing pieces from a huge bolt of paper and adding to a scrunched sculpture of a tree, from whose branches in the rafters hung white balloons. They went on at it—changing shades of paper later to blue—in a show that was highly entertaining even without the usual pleasure of a Kronthaler explanation (crazy-late schedule today) to fill in the gaps.
Held in a garage, much of these looks were transported around the runway by wheel. Some of the models, both male and female, did the rounds by skateboard—one of them in long robes covered with an equine print that ran through the collection (and which was worn by Westwood in the front row) coolly popped a couple of ollies as he went. Other models—many of them seriously ripped beefcakes wearing tight underwear possibly made in collaboration with Yasmine Eslami—casually circumnavigated the tree on electric scooters like those currently left by Bird and its rivals here, there, and everywhere on the streets of Paris. So there was a lot going on.
Amongst his influences for this season, Kronthaler cited Jessica Fulford-Dobson’s Skate Girls of Kabul photo portfolio and the catalog for this April’s auction of items from the pre-refurbishment Ritz hotel in Paris. One look featured a chair for a hat, another incorporated a tea tray as a peplum, and there was a lot of corsetry and bolstering of both breast and buttock. There was drunken tailoring aplenty, dirndl asides, modest robes in Saturn print, a great paint-spatter jacquard, and a bellhop outfit in pink moire. It was a highly entertaining show—let’s just hope that tree gets recycled.
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