Avant-garde
Bold shapes and new cuts first, from designers like Rick Owens, Margiela and Undercover.
Avant garde fashion is a way of dressing built around sculptural cuts, raw proportions and experimental construction that deliberately break from conventional tailoring. Heavy wool coats and textured linen shirts balance against fluid trousers to establish silhouette before color. Black anchors the palette alongside grey, cream and sand. Monochromatic dressing keeps focus entirely on the balance of drape, weight and sharp lines.
Yohji Yamamoto first showed in Paris in the early eighties, and his clothes are mostly black, with oversized shapes and drapery. Rick Owens, from California, started his label in Los Angeles in the mid nineties and moved to Paris in the early two thousands; he is known for draped clothes and leather jackets. Guidi began as a tannery in Pescia, Tuscany, in the eighteen nineties, and its boots are dyed whole after they are made.
Pleated pants, shirts and structured jackets form the base of this wall. Pair drop crotch trousers with heavy boots to ground the proportions cleanly. WDLT117 in Toronto brings pleated Homme Plisse Issey Miyake and Pleats Please Issey Miyake pieces, Guidi boots and Undercover. Utopia in Toronto brings Rick Owens and Maison Margiela sneakers, and Due West in Toronto brings thom/krom and Masnada.
