“Area is always about looking to the past, but informing the future with it,” said Piotrek Panszczyk of the brand’s 10-year milestone and see now, buy now fall runway show.
Like spring’s googly-eyed lineup, fall was about the idea of introspection. Here, Panszczyk moved down the body and focused hard-core on hands, quite literally, to reference notions of identity, with a play on conformity versus rebellion.
The body part was given a graphic Surrealist meets edgy club kids lens across ready-to-wear (a winning category that continues to expand) and funky couture-like looks that evoked the brand’s signature twisted glam in bold new ways.
Signature crystal hardware embellishments were replaced by amorous, 3D-printed embroidered plaques, chains, name and dog tags with fingerprint motifs on a mix of over-the-top showpieces and more grounded ready to wear, while leather layers were distressed or cooly emblazoned with punky studs, sequins, paillettes and shiny bugle bead strands that jutted out from the body.
Swishy Grecian-meets-bondage gowns made out of metallic jersey “spaghettis” emulated sexy, abstract takes on fingerprint grooves; the motif also appeared on more commercially friendly jacquard wool tailoring.
From there, hand silhouettes — said to belong to a person who worked on the collection — became the focal point. They were scanned, photocopied and cheekily printed onto denim, nylon and jersey daywear, including a “Bans Off Our Bodies” reproductive health and rights awareness T-shirt in collaboration with Tinder. They also were embossed on a bonded jersey dress and sweatsuit (as if they were coming out of the body, scary movie style), and crafted into a fully embroidered, revealing bugle beaded gown.
Taking it one step further, Panszczyk turned them into voluminous, nylon feather-like textures (that were pressed with a hair straightener and boned) on ‘60s inspired corset gowns in black and yellow.
“This is actually a dishwashing glove,” he joked of the yellow mini. Fantastical, but cheekily dashed with a bit of reality — a consistently winning combo for Area.
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