Avant garde

Avant garde fashion uses architectural cuts and raw textures to build silhouettes that challenge traditional proportions. Heavy wool, washed linen, and distressed leather ground sculptural shapes in shades of black, grey, and cream. Its modern form began in Paris in the early eighties, when Yohji Yamamoto showed loose, mostly black clothes with raw edges.

Rick Owens is known for long draped shapes and dropped crotch trousers, while Guidi tans its own horse leather in Tuscany for soft boots. Undercover stitches graphics and street details into raw deconstructed jackets. Layered tops, relaxed trousers, and heavy outerwear balance these sculpted boots for daily wear.

WDLT117 in Toronto carries most of the wall, from Song for the Mute and UJOH tailoring to Guidi boots. Utopia in Toronto adds Rick Owens sneakers and trousers, some pre owned. Due West in Toronto adds Masnada's tailoring, made in Italy.