Dear Shaded viewers,
Fall/Winter took on a whole new meaning at Kidsuper’s FW25 show, titled “From A Place I Have Never Been”. After being serenaded by warming music and an iridescent scarf caught billowing in the center of the stage, the audience was hushed by strong gusts of wind. In a matter of seconds, a tornado storied above us all. By the end of the show, Creative Director Colm Dillane announced on stage, “I try to do the impossible every time”, and there was no debate that he had achieved his goal.
The first look split the clouds with a straight and wide brimmed hat. An organza scarf draped around it evoked the glow of a golden sunset as the heat settles on a searing summer evening. It led the way for an apocalyptic army series of looks where only eyes could be seen beneath the bundling of quilted coats and layers of denim and distressed knits. A dusty canvas texture on desert sand and khaki tactical outerwear transported the audience to Dillane’s fantasy realm.
We witnessed Kidsuper’s signature patchwork technique graduate to a higher technical level, balancing suede with leather and organic with angular shapes in an autumnal palette. Adding to a foundation of parkas, trenches and suits, an artful reclamation of materials on accessories coloured the collection optimistically. An army surplus bag was given new life with a flowery painting, a collection of scrabble tiles and buttons piled up on neckties, and vintage telephones served as handles of boxes turned to bags. The sculptural pieces came about due to delays in manufacturing, but contributed to the wild and wonderful sense of escapism.
Throughout the 50 looks of the collection, Kidsuper’s biggest to date, a number of collaborations turned the heads of streetwear fanatics watching the show. Designing pieces with Bape, including turning the frowns of the iconic shark hoodies upside down and to imagine his own rainbow Bapestars, was a dream come true to Dillane – a full circle to the days he would try to sell his screen printed T-shirts to those waiting in line for their next drop. Tailored looks crossing urban codes with the refinement of office staples and fluidity of Japanese silhouettes came from a capsule with WILDSIDE Yohji Yamamoto that wove Kidsuper’s DNA into intricate embroideries. The Brazilian artisans of PIET imagined a hand crocheted jacket and HAMCUS created a coat that transforms into a hammock. “The best art doesn’t happen in isolation, it’s born from a collective effort,” Dillane summarizes it best in his show notes. The level of precise detailing and the depth in his storytelling clearly develops as he continues to foster multicultural and multidisciplinary connections and look for fashion where you least expect it.
Dillane’s concept is not the only thing to adventure into unknown territories. This season, while his earthy palette is more subdued than in the past, his risks in new materials return as rewards. Head to toe luscious furs in ski-inspired silhouettes and tapestry textiles from head to toe integrate a new meaning of luxury to his design DNA, while guarding accessibility to his devoted audience. Dillane’s whimsical blend of art and design gives this collection a haute level of refinement from his signature hand drawn embroidery to miniature paintings created with Stolen Arts that draw the eye to belt buckles and a bolo tie. Repurposed sketching papers and painted canvases pile together to form minidresses, epitomizing the unity between art and garment making.
The final looks were all white for a finale that evoked the blissful sensation at the end of the long journey. By then, the tornado created by fellow New Yorker Daniel Wurtzel had become a whirlwind of paper strips, leaves and birds. After the final look, opera singer Ekaterina Shelehova whose alluring voice was sampled throughout the show, came to the stage to give a live performance and summoned an immediate round of applause.
Later,
Eliya
