Duran Lantink is at the center of the fashion industry’s attention: a show in an office, low budget production, yet drawing focus on some creativity in Paris
Fashion and Sustainability – No Interest. At Least, Let’s Seek Creativity
It’s a given: fashion is not interested in sustainability. Let’s move beyond that. Let’s look for creativity—yes, with polyurethanes, elastics, and plastics—but let’s seek strong creativity, a bold design, an unprecedented idea. Something that influences everything else, as fashion is meant to do. This is not resignation but reaction: creativity has the power to find solutions we cannot yet imagine. Creativity is what we do not yet anticipate.
The Creativity of Duran Lantink – Beauty or Ugliness, Diversity or Uniqueness. Just Public Relations?
Creativity can be found at Duran Lantink. It has been widely discussed. Clothes detach from the body, inventing volumes, finding irony and nonchalance, telling a sculptural story. The statement remains – there is no fixed standard of beauty, not anymore, in fashion. Aesthetic norms should not—should never have been—standardized. Ugliness and beauty are not concepts that today’s fashion seeks to convey—something previous generations and corporate managers must come to terms with.
One can debate the relationship between diversity and uniqueness: are you different from others, or are you simply at ease in your own uniqueness? Are different and unique synonyms? Girls with masculine pectorals and breasts that move on male legs. Unwearable jeans, yet almost painterly. The editorial value is already embedded in the product—no need for a photographer, no need for the editorial context of a magazine. With a dress like this, any photo, even one taken by your four-years-old child, becomes viral.
Is it all reduced to this? At least people are talking about it. A presentation with little financial backing—raising the question of how such a project is funded. How much can it sell—to buyers, to end customers? A fashion show in an office, with rough details. Free, independent—at least for now. Are PR efforts enough to grow a brand into a business? Or is it just about creating enough brand awareness to attract a financial group. A financial group that will acquire the package and provide a salary to the creative director – and that’s it.
Is the PR work behind Duran Lantink well thought out, or is it just another instance of fashion industry frigidity—self-indulgent and, of course, sterile? Does fashion entrepreneurship still exist, or has fashion become just a game of who can secure the investor first to shoulder the problem?
Alaïa and Pieter Mulier – From Duran Lantink to Schiaparelli
From a creativity standpoint, Pieter Mulier’s work at Alaïa deserves mention. There seems to be a dialogue between Duran Lantink and these volumetric evolutions at Alaïa, a house traditionally known for its body-hugging designs. Back in the day, Azzedine Alaïa used synthetic, elastic fiber produced in Italy, which was considered innovative. Today, these elastic structures explode into macro-trim embellishments that transform into dresses, shawls, ornaments, and sleeveless jackets. Are these garments or sculptural designs applied to the female body? This exploration of volume and expansion, catalyzed by Duran Lantink, also finds a subtle reference in Schiaparelli.
Hyper consumerism, Anna Wintour, and Trump – Same Attitude, Same Age
Much of what is seen in Paris is the development of commercial brands—the realm of Anna Wintour. A woman who once exuded a sense of power and who today stands as the ultimate icon of American consumerism. Professionally, Anna Wintour is the symbolic synthesis of every reason behind the crisis that fashion is currently facing.
The reputation problem that fashion is suffering from: a system revolving around a contest of attitude and frivolous coolness; a system where public relations take precedence over substance; a system that continues to evaluate everything based on follower counts on Meta. A system that is the natural expression of an era governed by Trump and, indeed, by Anna Wintour. More and more, Trump and Wintour seem alike. Different in their fields—one talks about war and oil while humming Drill, baby, drill; the other talks about plastic, colors, and parties—but their attitude is similar, just like their age.
Alessandro Michele for Valentino – from overloading the Archive with too many layers of meaning, to a new balance
While in Milan, Donatella Versace keeps dancing and insisting that fashion should be fun, Alessandro Michele at Valentino is finding his proper balance. The first AM’s shows at Valentino seemed to follow the belief that a designer has their own identity, and a brand is the broadcaster—it means: Michele does what he knows and remains coherent: he did it at Gucci, now he does it at Valentino. The exploration of Valentino’s archive initially felt forced, especially because, for Michele—a Roman, omniscient, and eclectic—the historical imagery of Valentino has always been part of his own world. With the March 9th show, the narrative takes on a deeper layer, and the rhythm changes.
The beginning of the collection gets lost in embroidered lace and sequins that feel disconnected from the present moment. A mist emerges from glossy red lacquer, set against the reproduction of a subway station public restroom: everything is confused, everything is too much—too many layers of meaning, too much pursuit of the wow effect, too much creative force echoing in the air. But from look sixteen onward, the styling begins to simplify. The show finds a rhythm, like a measured four-count beat, allowing the design of the pieces to emerge from the excess of makeup and set design. The reinterpretation of the archive becomes a reactive element rather than just a legitimization of the past.
Alessandro Michele knows how to weave connections between disciplines—without needing to summon divine thunderbolts. Shapes and lines take center stage: the two-tone contrast, fur trims—elements inherent to Valentino, now refreshed with sensibility. The sharply structured shoulders, now seen everywhere, are given a quiet elegance rooted in tradition. The plunging neckline reaches the navel, not pointed but hyperbolic. Branding appears on a red knit sweater, featuring a white stylized “V.” As for the lycra or similar sheer fabrics, sequins, and crystal embellishments—this writer finds them outdated.
Demna and Balenciaga: Is his poetic narrative outdated? From fashion’s demolition to the porn clerk
Demna Gvasalia at Balenciaga. His journey in dismantling fashion—meaning, annihilating it as it is and turning into fashion what should never have been: the Adidas sneaker, the IKEA shopping bag. A reinterpretation of the readymade concept within the consumerist industry, where fetish becomes fashion, the fecal element turns into art – again.
Today, consumerism must be fought, not only intellectualized. An aesthetic or intellectual stance is no longer enough; what is needed is civic reaction. Without a pragmatic declaration, Demna’s poetic vision risks appearing outdated, stale, repetitive.
At the outbreak of war, he staged a show of boys trudging through mud. Because fashion, above all, is the storytelling of time as it unfolds. Today, Demna sends out a robust, muscular young man—built like a wardrobe—wearing a pair of jeans and a white shirt. Look number seven.
Borderlands near Russia, NATO-associated. Central Eastern Europe—vast steppes, the Black Sea. Boys, pale-skinned and hairless; if there’s violence, it resembles poetry. The young man holds a rose in his hand. He is a bank employee at a provincial branch in Tbilisi, taking a mid-morning coffee break. The red rose is the closing scene of the film.
And yet: this same man, outside of office hours, works as a gay porn actor, sexually versatile, capable of climaxing three times in succession—while also being part of the executive production of the video. The actors Demna directs, are the boys from every suburb, the ones who smoke and talk nonsense on the wall behind the gas station, dreaming of making trap music. Dressed like warehouse workers. A torn, faded tank top—that in stores will carry a price tag of hundreds of euros.
Demna has been announced as Gucci’s new Creative Director (editor’s note)
The news, dated March 13, was released today by the French group Kering immediately after the markets closed: Demna has been named the new Creative Director of Gucci. He will take charge of the entire brand. His official start in Italy is scheduled for July, after the Balenciaga haute couture show in Paris. Demna Gvasalia—who is Georgian and will turn 44 on March 25—succeeds Sabato De Sarno, who stepped down in January after serving as Creative Director for two years.
