STATE OF GRACE FREJA BEHA ERICHSEN

FREJA BEHA ERICHSEN (IMG)

TOMEK SZCZUKIECKI (WILHELMINA)

"STATE OF GRACE"

INTERVIEW MAYO 2011

FOTOS DE MIKAEL JANSSON

LODEN DAGER SPRING 2011 MENSWEAR

AIDEN ANDREWS (FORD)

t's not really fair to call it an insider's secret, but Loden Dager isn't exactly a household name, either. (That might be because it's a mouthful, or because it comprises a collective of at least three partners—designers Paul Marlow and Oliver Helden, and the more back-of-house man Alexander Galan.) But there was J.Crew's Jenna Lyons front-row at the label's presentation today. A few seats down, the Opening Ceremony crew. Nearby, an ensign from Net-a-Porter's soon-to-launch menswear shop, Mr Porter. In July, Loden Dager was named as a finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award. Is this the season the label breaks through?

DANNY ARTER (MAJOR)

There's no predicting the retail weather, but the clothes that hit the runway prove the label deserves the attention. Marlow and Helden were thinking about Band of Bikers, a collection of sixties photographs of bike gangs, when they began working on Spring. They were guided, too, by their new Italian factories. "Punky Italian dandy" is how Marlow described the result. In other words, these were some sharp bikers (more likely fixie-heads than hog-riders, but never mind that). There was plenty of Italian selvage denim throughout, in moto vests and classic jean jackets, all snaked with zippers.

LASSE PEDERSEN (DNA)

Relaxed cotton suiting—a staple of the LD collections for years—came this season in what Helden called "ice cream colors": berry purples and pinks, coral, and sky blue. It made for Loden Dager's strongest showing in seasons. Props, too, to the pit crew: Philip Crangi, who made biker-chain bracelets and belts, and George Esquivel, for the fine suede double-monk-strap shoes.

MATT

OSKAR TRANUM (MAJOR)

TARAS KOLTUN (DNA)

JOHANNES

WES PHILIPS (DNA)

TOM

TOMEK SZCZUKIECKI (WILHELMINA)

MILES GARBER (DNA)

GRAYSON GETTYS (WILHELMINA)

DAVID AGBODJI (REQUEST)

ALEXANDER

ROBBIE WADGE (NEW YORK MODEL)

ZHAO LEI (WILHELMINA)

RYAN KENNEDY (WILHELMINA)

charlie

BRIANE HATCHER (FORD)

JOSH BEECH (DNA)

CLEMENT CHABERNAUD (WILHELMINA)

Oliver Helden

ANN DEMEULEMEESTER SPRING 2011 MENSWEAR

An all-white collection of clothes that cleaved close to the body signaled a change on theAnn Demeulemeester catwalk. Gone were the shadowy, poetic layers, replaced by pieces so clinical and precise they wouldn't have looked out of place in a Viennese fencing academy, or on the attendants of an upscale insane asylum (the white breastplates also looked like deconstructed straitjackets). Where there was volume, as in a silken parka or a jacquard coat, it was kept in check by a wide elasticated cummerbund that could probably work Spanx-like wonders on a wayward midriff, as well.

Marcel Castenmiller

The show seemed over in a flash, but while the audience was uncertainly applauding, it started up again, duplicated detail for detail in black, with the cotton of the first course often replaced by leather. "I wanted to see what would happen," said Demeulemeester of the switcheroo. "Things look quite different. It's a different emotion."

Ethan James

She was almost right. Of course, white cotton and black leather are scarcely of the same family, but while you might expect the leather to have a dark, vaguely threatening cast, it was extraordinary how sinister the purest white could look as well. It was an intriguing experiment. And we're glad that Ann does these things, so we don't have to.

Toms Silke

Tomek Szczukiecki

BENONI LOOS (MAJOR)

Cole Mohr

Hubert Rapisardi

Thomas Hassler

GERHARD FREIDL

Ethan James

Marcel Castenmiller

Toms Silke