The world doesn’t need more clothes, it needs modern thinking about clothes. How can we make them more useful and less disposable? How can versatility be built in? Those are the concerns that Marie Adam-Leenaerdt set out to address this season, in a collection divided into two parts.
In the first, the models wore coats and suits and dresses in heavy-duty Joseph Beuysian felted gray wool, the tailoring somewhat oversized and the dresses in bold geometric shapes. When they came back around again, they had added a top layer to the garments, sort of like slipcovers for furniture, hence the show’s location in a home furnishings gallery. A coat was enlivened with a leopard print shell, a triangle skirt got an electric blue gloss, and a mini shift became a trompe l’oeil cardigan coat in the vein of Coco Chanel.
It wasn’t entirely obvious that this was the formula until the models walked by and you noticed an undone zipper in back, revealing the Beuys felt underneath. And Adam-Leenaerdt isn’t entirely sure that stores will respond to this slipcover idea of hers—selling two-fers is probably more complicated at a moment when retailers don’t need any more complications—but she’s forging ahead undeterred. And influencing other designers. The slipcover concept was picked up by a much bigger New York brand earlier this season.
Meanwhile, she’s also making other, more familiar pieces more versatile, like the sweater that converts from a turtleneck to a crew neck to a v-neck, or the printed dress whose volumes can be manipulated by adjustable underhoops. “For me,” she said, “versatility is really important today, because there are so many things, and when I design a new jumper, it’s important to give more strength to one garment, because it’s expensive to buy a knit. If you give this impression to buy a two- or three-in-one, it’s more relevant.”
Also today, Anrealage’s Kunihiko Morinaga did a show in two parts; his was divided between analog and digital, but both collections were about reskinning garments to augment them and augment our lives. Maybe they should get together for a collaboration. At the very least, Adam-Leenaerdt is worthy of industry support to keep developing and refining her solution oriented sportswear.
