There were moments in this painfully scheduled show—between Yohji Yamamoto and Dries Van Noten on a strike-struck night—when plans went awry: a sound issue at the start, a foot-support that flapped from behind a backless Vibram-soled clog. However, these were only occasional misfires in a Kiko Kostadinov collection that was, for the most, bang on target.
Kostadinov’s technique runs in two directions: One is to cleverly render the functional abstract and decorative; the other, to explore the potential of the abstract to serve a functional purpose. Here he took aim at archery as well as the World War II piloting career of the artist Kenneth Noland and the sculpture of his daughter Cady. All this lead to a strongly defined and discreetly ornate seasonal livery.
To a boom-boom-boom soundtrack (eventually) overlaid with the sound of arrowheads thudding into bull’s-eyes, we saw sharply darted suiting (some sleeveless and long-skirted) or separates set in chevron panels colored, sometimes, in a sky blue that hinted at Royal Air Force uniforms. There were full batwing sleeves and shawl-collared zippered gilets. Pants came delicately sliced in a sort of un-encircled Mercedes-Benz logo shape just above the knee. The front-strapped jackets with contrasting perforations and panels were Kostadinov distilled sublimations of the grip-strapped and chest-protected garb of Olympic archers, carrying outlines of arrow holsters and functional billows pockets. This designer enjoys exploring sharp contrasts in color and texture, which played out in the faux python fabrics, roughened suede, and knits. An opera sleeve overcoat in a heavy-looking, light-feeling fabric with contrasting paneling at the shoulder was teamed with one of the show’s beanie/scarf hybrids—it was Kostadinov’s good-looking last shot down the runway. The designer confessed that he has never tried archery; the clothes are an authentic enough reflection of his urge to take long-evolved sporting attire and process it into something shaped purely according to his own aesthetic aim.
