CMMN SWDN designers Saif Bakir and Emma Hedlund named their Spring collectsion It’s a Jumble Out There. As guests entered their industrial show space in Paris this evening, bales of unwanted clothes sat stacked, blocking the runway. That prop work hinted at the lineup’s theme: overconsumption, and a commentary on “buying and throwing away, buying and throwing away,” said Hedlund.
The designers cleverly revamped pieces from older CMMN SWDN collectsions while reinventing other components. The effect was delicately Frankenstein-ian, with oversize sheer button-downs (these gossamer-thin items were the show’s highlights), deconstructed tops combining mesh and knits, and attractive pants that had leather paneling over part of the hip. Said Bakir: The clothes had “the awkward proportions of previously loved garments.”
Sometimes, the exposition was not quite so nuanced, such as with laser-etched denim that featured icons and ads for discount shopping. The literalism there stepped away, in the wrong direction, from the subtle subversion of this collectsion elsewhere. But that was righted with the shoes, which were made in collaboration with a designer named Helen Kirkum. She dissected and reassembled chunky footwear from CMMN SWDN’s prior Fall collectsion; these looked like actual Frankenstein feet, as one could see the seams and the rawness at hand. Kirkum’s creations grounded the message that fashion’s cyclic abandon is turning evermore ominous.
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