There have been moments in the not-so-distant past when this reviewer has been perplexed by the showers of rainbows, the cascades of strass, the lashings of patches and flames, and the out-and-out “welcome to my crazy” at Each x Other. Who, one wondered, wore it all?
The answer: legions of fans who showed up for the runway presentations and imperiously stole seats wherever they could find them and many, many more beyond. But with its 10th anniversary, Each x Other appears to have reached the age of reason, switched tack, and opted instead for smart workwear options for the fashion attuned who do not belong to the 1 percent—or at least not yet. That’s a massive, fashion-hungry swath.
The stated goal, however, was a lofty one, according to the show’s notes: “To align our goals as individuals with our goals as a society”—hence a number of options in vegetal leather or faux fur and an ongoing fashion-art collaboration with the talented model and artist Amanda Wall, whose work sales contribute to Free Arts, a children’s charity in Los Angeles.
The British model Lorelle Rayner opened the show with a song she composed especially for the brand, which had an opening line to the effect of, “It’s only when our hearts stop that our minds cease to exist / In a world that moves to bring us closer to each other,” and, somewhat confusingly, went on to say somewhere toward the end, “Things are easy when you’re big in Japan.”
But for the brand’s cofounders, Ilan Delouis and Jenny Mannerheim, the togetherness is the thing. During a pre-show interview, they noted that they liked to use their label as a platform for intimacy, citing as inspirations, variously: oneness, emotionality, and sensual architecture (notably that of John Lautner). The crux of the collection was inspired by menswear, they said, deconstructed and resculpted for (mostly) women, but then again, in the spirit of the times, that’s open to interpretation.
There were lots of attractive things here, particularly those that were faux—what woman wouldn’t want to wear a midnight-blue “astrakhan” coat or a white “fur” cape-jacket? (Plus: You can throw them in the washing machine!) Also notable: a moonlight-silver suit. Transversality and transformability—key concepts for Fall—came through in pieces that can be buttoned together (jacket, blouse) or unbuttoned (vest, sleeveless shirt). Rainer wore a case-in-point version in periwinkle blue. Sometimes, there were good-luck fringes inspired by the traditional tzitzit (dangling off a black suit with cropped trousers). The designers called it a “spiritual wardrobe”: clean, spare, and functional. There was plenty to wear. It’s not hard to picture. So why, one wonders, do we miss the crazy?
