They don’t call them investment pieces for nothing. In good retail times and challenging ones, coats and bags are the items that sell because they’re the forward-facing essentials of a wardrobe. At the Fall fashion shows in February and March, they’re often all we see of one another’s outfits as we hurtle from venue to venue. They telegraph status, taste, and—sometimes lately—a person’s politics. The same goes for out there in the real world. Albert Kriemler opted to make the most of this fact with his smart new collection for Akris.
For his de rigueur photo prints, Kriemler worked with the Canadian artist Rodney Graham. A six-photo self-portrait series, in which Graham shrugs on a coat, was installed on the Palais de Tokyo’s curving wall and printed on the backs of Kriemler’s closing pieces. The audience for these will be a cross section of Akris customers and Graham collectors (or would-be collectors). In other words, highly specialized. But the variety elsewhere—sleek, reversible black leather; denim-blue mink; a swing coat in vichy check; the duster in shearling—will have broad appeal. Bags ranged from small, structured cross-bodies to large, weathered leather weekenders. The shapes that fell somewhere in the middle (large enough for an iPad, too small for gym clothes) are likely to connect best with the polished corporate power brokers who shop this brand.
A bit anachronistically, all of the looks were shown with bare legs and stiletto sandals. Shoes say just as much about a woman as her coat and bag, and like those items, they’re also a practical necessity. How would the Akris woman have faced down today’s driving rain? That’s something Kriemler could consider before the next go-around.
