Post-quarantine social anxiety is a meme waiting to happen; it’s also a reality. Andreas Schmidl and Josef Lazo want to help you break the ice—and raise eyebrows—with slogans on mesh tops and bleached flannel like “Buy Me,” “Out Now,” and “Duty Free.” All are double entendres, and all refer to commerce, i.e., retail therapy. “People want to treat themselves,” says Schmidl.
They also want to show themselves. As Lazoschmidl customers are born exhibitionists, they seem sure to adopt the midriff look the designers are proposing; they’re already familiar with the brand’s barely there bikini briefs.
Lazo and Schmidl are in an extra-celebratory mood (note the metallic confetti on the set). “The message of our brand is always freedom,” noted the latter. That translated here into shiny fabrics and bright colors. As loud as suspender pants and shorts in yellow vinyl are, they will work as good layering pieces.
The push behind this collection, which they called Overdose, was to take existing pieces, silhouettes, patterns, and motifs, and push them to extremes. An Op Art–like checkerboard motif from an earlier season was brought back for use on knit separates that are more than playful; they represent the brand’s growing maturity and refinement. If the sloganized pieces mark this moment, the knitwear not only speaks for itself, but will conceivably keep on talking for years to come.
The feel-good item, and the one with obvious crossover appeal, is the knit butterfly top that can be adjusted with a drawstring. Other tops with straps that fall seductively off one shoulder are in keeping with a vein of sensuality (see Prada and Fendi) that seems to be expressive of the “new masculinity” that’s being buzzed about (and which usually translates into softness, a trait that has historically been designated as feminine).
The new masculine ideal is on one hand still at a conceptual level of development, and on the other, already existing. “The models we book or we work with, they already have that self-identity of [the] new masculinity,” Schmidl says. “They’re living it already.” And maybe you can too, without going out of your comfort zone. By wearing even a single piece from the collection, adds Lazo, you can “break down the barriers and at least make people rethink what masculinity can be.”
