BLK DNM has a way of seizing the stylistic Zeitgeist and melting it down to its modern-classic essentials. The five-year-old Swedish label does so by stripping away all unnecessary decoration, branding, product names (only numbers are used), even designer credit. If there were in fact a designer, or designers, currently behind BLK DNM, no one would know because, as this journo was told during a visit to the Soho store and showroom, all that’s done anonymously so as to be a “true collective.” Fair enough. With founding designer Johan Lindeberg’s departure still fresh in people’s minds, it would seem that’s the most respectful direction to take.
BLK DNM never veers far from its rock ’n’ roll roots, so its men’s distillations fell mainly in the punk-grunge zone for Fall—though still in a minimal, unobtrusive, deconstructed whisper of a way. A bit of Lurex here, an exposed seam there, a denim vest frayed ever so, or a subtle zipper down the back seam of a leather bomber (for quick venting at a music gig, the thinking goes). Even a mohair leopard-print long coat, a natty standout, came off as understated in a monochrome gray palette. In terms of jeans, upon which the label is based, the new Jeans 3 has a relaxed fit, a slight departure from its best-selling Jeans 5. Lately BLK DNM has been collaborating with local artists to further burnish its collectiveness. Brooklyn artist B Thom Stevenson created several transfer prints on T-shirts that harked back to an old-school flier style, when art was made manually. That’s where the Zeitgeist is now, plumbing the rich depths of the prehistoric time before the Internet.
