It was a playful collection, with Julian Klausner drawing on a colorful variety of inspirations: The multi-cultural “treasure box” of Antwerp in its 16th century heyday, Flemish still life paintings of fruits and birds – and high school in the 21st century, with all of its emotional and sartorial dynamics.
The collection was vibrant, swinging from the polished to the raw-edged, from sophisticated to youthful. The show unfurled at Lycée Carnot, a high school that’s empty this week for the midwinter break.
Klausner said he loved the venue from the moment he stepped inside. At the time, it was filled with hundreds of students, which got him thinking about school uniforms, teenage fashion experimentation and dressing for comfort and security.
That all translated into colorful sweaters and vest tops, some of which came with rough-edged woolly scarves; oversized baseball jackets with gold crests, and uniform blazers with contrast piping, broad shoulders and cinched waists. He also took plaid – a schoolyard classic – and transformed it into lovely sleeveless dresses with high ruffle collars, padded coats and trousers.
Klausner drew bits of gold, jewelry and rich color from those Flemish paintings and used them to create wide, shimmering embellished belts for faded denim and long top coats. He also worked colorful tapestry patches on jackets and skirts, mimicking teenagers’ attempts to subvert the uniform and stand out in the crowd.
He loved the idea of distortion, too, using bits of pixellated paintings on the fronts of coats with stand-up collars, and working with gobeline, a type of jacquard that resembles tapestry, for a lineup of long coats – some with toggle fronts and hoods – and for gold-edged jackets and snazzy patchwork bustier tops.
The designer worked that rich gobeline fabric into a coat, trousers and duffle-style bag with a magnified rose pattern, and into satin padded jackets with wide collars and Japanese flair.
There was a lot going on here – so many references, patterns, color and tinkling gold jewels – but Klausner managed to pull the disparate threads together to create a distinctive, and glorious tapestry. His work deserves an A.
