Last week, Rami Malek gave the world one of its first looks at Kris Van Assche’s new Berluti. The star, who plays the legendary Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, wore a white suit and black shirt tipped with white stitching by Van Assche to the film’s London world premiere. The trim efficiency looked familiar to anyone who followed the designer’s progress at Dior Homme; he’s brought much of the atelier with him to Berluti.
With somewhat less fanfare, Van Assche is presenting his capsule collection for Spring 2019 with showroom days around the world—Paris was last week, New York today. The Belgian designer replaces Haider Ackermann, whose three seasons at the label were marked by their sumptuous androgyny. The biggest sign of change today was the Berluti logo itself, its stately serif font replaced by a sans-serif typeface of which the corners were shaved off, “to signify new beginnings,” a company press release explained. It was printed on the wall and on a white tee shown over a collared shirt and tucked into belted flat-front black pants.
His first runway effort, debuting in January, will be more robust, but this set the tone for Van Assche’s Berluti: sartorial, but not without the kind of technical/casual streetwear elements that turn on the millennial customer. Berluti being a shoemaker originally, there was no shortage of leather—for pants, for jackets, and, naturally, for accessories. This seems indicative of where Van Assche plans to take the house: For every leather lace-up court shoe with Berluti’s signature ombré glaçage treatment, there was an amply soled leather sneaker, a first for the company.
