Victoria Feldman and Tomas Berzins continued to mine their formative years, referencing Y2K culture in a streetwise collection that blurred the lines between minimalism and sex appeal.
“We wanted to come back to our foundation where we were basing ourselves on classic clothes, but reworked in a younger way and with some fun details,” Berzins explained backstage before the show.
They played on gender stereotypes by giving feminine touches to men’s looks and masculine elements to women’s — but without making the as-always reversible garments genderless as such. “The idea was to blur and merge the lines,” Feldman explained.
Transparency was key, as on diaphanous tank tops and harem pants with chunky cargo pockets offered for both men and women on the runway. Distressed effects and the predominant black nodded to the gothic, “but in a clean way,” summed up Berzins. Heavyweight denim was made into a pantsuit with geometric cutout panels looped with a multitude of dangling chains.
They reprised last season’s shift dresses featuring appliqué strips from collections past forming wave-like patterns, with the same technique used as a placement on some of the boxier pieces.
Shirtdresses in crisp fabrics with utilitarian details like contrasting zips, boxy wide-legged suiting in textiles with a sheen and tie-waist loose denims with a layered overskirt were among the looks. Among more casual pieces, a hoodie was cleverly transformed into a maxidress, its pocketed front placed in repeat to form the skirt, slit part way up the rear.
There was also collaboration with heritage fragrance brand Caron, with the design duo creating carrying cases for bottles of scent that accessorized the looks on the runway.
The “Garçonne” suit in the lineup was inspired by the collaboration, a relaxed black pantsuit, one side in slightly shiny nylon. Sheer pleated dresses, skirts and tops with metallic coating were perhaps a modernist nod toward fragrance bottles. Caron did not create a fragrance as such for the collaboration, but chose the occasion to launch its new scent, Musc Oli.