Metal Magazine

A strand of futurism and form permeates metal’s summer issue. Drawing its starting position from Paco Rabanne’s idea that creation should shock, Metal follows the tendency through with articles on the likes of Gareth Pugh, Iris van Herpen and Dal Chodha’s more discursive text on the relationship between technology and this particular area of fashion. The theme is rounded-off feel with the complement of related ideas such as Nicolas Valois’ menswear shoot, styled by Donatella Musco, that gives pride of place to the Space Age sculptural forms of primarily younger designers. Or by the inclusion of an article on the work of the aspirant London-based artist Matthew Stone.

What we might take from all of this is the continuing –it’s not really that it’s only just re-emerged- aesthetic that stresses angularity, composite facets, hard shells and a form that has more of an interest in sculpture than in practical, wearable fashion remains new and interesting for a whole new generation. Those who already lived through the 1960’s manifestations or the 1980’s mania for dredging the Bauhaus performance art archive to inspire fashion might not find it new. But, it’s importance is less in whether it is ‘original’ and novel and more in its contemporary resonance.

By contrast, a lot of the other fashion stories in this issue have a rather different feel. Tetsuharu Kubota’s womenswear shoot, styled by Angela Esteban Librero, profiling the gamut of women’s fashion from Armani and Philip Lim to Jeremy Laing and G-Star Raw, does have a relationship to the sculptural approach, but the end result is very much classic and sophisticated. Similarly, Francesco Brigida shoots and Ivan Bontchev and Enrico Maria Volontè style a unisex fashion story in which bright colour and even some seasonal florals in some of the current collections are drawn out in a bold, geometric way, yet these positions remain somewhat distinct from the Utopian drives of fashion futurology underpinning the issue.

As always, there are all the usual short articles on trendy lifestyle trends, hip international hangouts and must-have bijou toys.

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