“I have a new seam-taping machine,” said Boris Bidjan Saberi after this show. Well, he’s certainly getting good use out of it. Many of his purposefully grimy, industrially worn-down-looking garments (jackets especially) were seamed in tape, which looked attractive and carried over into the rest of the collection. The opening look, a sort of roughened T-shirt habit, was the first of many to come with taping that trailed behind it. One look featured tape that went back maybe six meters. That would drive me insane—what if someone trod on it? One model wisely carried his tape train rolled up in either hand. There was also tape affixed to the models’ faces.
All this tape, apart from the pleasing seaming, was a bit of a distraction from some really excellent details. The arms-optional jackets had a lovely finish and cut, and the one-shouldered pouch bags were quite cool pieces of pseudo-primitive portage. Cool sneakers too, designed in collaboration with Salomon. Personally, I think dramatically drop-crotch pants are the devil’s work but Saberi’s niche is clearly into them, and the examples here were very droppy and crotchy indeed.
Saberi said his inspirations this season were achromatopsia (the condition of only being able to see in black, white, or shades of gray), Brutalist architecture, and mineworkers’ outfits. Certainly, there was a coally wanness and concrete sternness to his overwhelmingly shades of gray collection.
