Each x Other is many things to many people—and many things by many people. Since its founding, the brand’s creative directors, Jenny Mannerheim and Ilan Delouis, and in-house artist, Robert Montgomery, have made a habit of mixing art and fashion—or poetry, art, and fashion—and incorporating other creative people as they go along. Now that fashion is in walking-billboard mode, they can justifiably pride themselves on having a particular kind of prescience.
True to form, a love of poetry and rock ’n’ roll informs the Spring collection, but there are also plenty of add-ons in the mix. This summer, Montgomery married fellow poet and filmmaker Greta Bellamacina, a happy event that infused the label’s original baseline, “safe and warm here in the fire of each other,” with extra meaning (the bride even gave her wedding dress—complete with a gothic-lettered message veil—a second outing as the last look of the show).
“Each x Other makes more sense than ever now. It’s all in the ‘x’: We’re living in a truly collaborative, multihyphenate society,” Mannerheim offered in a preshow interview. The multihyphenate part also applies to Each x Other’s glam-rock celebration of love. Flames lapped at the hems of wide, cropped jeans, then returned at the collar of a jumpsuit, on a sequined red minidress, and on hybrid cowboy boot–slash–mules.
Mannerheim says she has always believed that making fashion is “not about how much money you put into a collection, but how much creativity you put into it.” For that reason, she decided to give one of the line’s perennial best-sellers, a black-and-white–striped biker jacket, its first runway outing (among other iterations). Denim made a play for evening with beaded fringe on cowboy shirts or as a stripe shimmying on tailored trousers. Boxy sequined suits were offered as a daywear option alongside “scribble paint” tees or message suits.
As a finale, this season’s special guest, Turkish-born, London-based up-and-comer Dilara Findikoglu, explored gender fluidity with a riff on Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire. Seven romantic-meets-punk looks (including that wedding gown) combined weighty silk and satin with lace, flower beading, and black velvet trim. “It’s really a big celebration,” offered Findikoglu. “My friends are all poets; I’m just trying to complement what they do. Greta is the ultimate muse.”
