Each x Other may be the only fashion brand with an in-house artist/poet. For several seasons, Robert Montgomery’s words have helped steer the vision of founders Jenny Mannerheim and Ilan Delouis (Jefferson Hack is also a contributor). For Pre-Fall, Montgomery conceived these four lines: “Eagles live on the rooftops / Not as symbols just as eagles / They remember the sky / Money is a superstition.”
And go figure, several pieces in the collection—denim tops and bottoms, a plaid flannel dress, a brown shirt—featured embroidered eagles in various states of flight. Most people would identify these as symbols, which would suggest a rejection of Montgomery’s poem. But we were there to understand the clothes, not parse the semiotics. With this in mind, restyled standards such as the dense-felted wool army green coat, stitched pinstripe denim, and a simple turtleneck enhanced by a wayward ruffle would hold their own against conventional counterparts. A two-button caban testified to proper tailoring, as did two mannish blazers—one trim, one generous.
Mannerheim cited the 1960s art movement Fluxus and Joseph Beuys as precursors to the fashion/art symbiosis happening in urban centers today, positioning Each x Other as a medium with a “creative minimalism” slant. In conversation, this sounded persuasive enough. But when the clothes ventured into experimental territory—say, the asymmetrically draped pants and a suit the shade of cardboard—the brand revealed its strength as a concept and weakness in terms of wearable allure. The leather jacket patched with an abstracted black eagle spread across the sleeves was pretty fly, though.
