Bluemarble’s Anthony Alvarez has Filipino, Spanish, and French heritages, and was born in New York City. The music at his show tonight included Whitney Houston, Nina Simone, Rosalia, and Three 6 Mafia. His references included a “West Coast vibe,” family superstitions, dreams, and Hawaiian prints.
The idea of mélange comes organically to Alvarez, and he’s made it an intrinsic quality of Bluemarble. Now in its fifth year, the label is starting to shed its “emerging” skin. “There’s a more grown-up feeling in this collection,” he said backstage, “I wanted to dress up a little more.” But as menswear dresses up—scroll down Vogue Runway and you’ll see tailored jackets opening most shows this season—and as Bluemarble starts to mature, Alvarez is determined to preserve the youthful, freewheeling spirit that has defined his work so far. “I want to still keep the forever-young spirit. I want to be just teetering the edge,” he added.
This is where today’s special date comes into play: It’s the first day of summer and the Fête de la Musique is happening here in Paris—the stage was set for Alvarez’s own festival with a mood that was a little trippy, even topsy-turvy, but still charming.
California nostalgia made an apt vehicle in which to explore the tension between youth and sophistication. Suits were paired with extra long t-shirts, tailored jackets and trousers were hybridized with tracksuits via varsity details in silk, and dress shirts came bedazzled with playful stardust motifs. Board shorts, cargo pants, and trousers were decorated with crystals arranged in spiral patterns, in reference to the spiral shell from Corsica known as the “Eye of Saint Lucie,” a good luck charm. Most compelling were the graphic tees ripped down the chest and held together by chains, and a run of unbuttoned, collarless shirts fastened with skateboard buckles—you could picture someone like Sebastian Yatra, who sat front row, wearing either. For his prints, Alvarez placed hibiscus artwork over an acid trip background, before adding some studs, and bedazzled cheetah spots with tiny crystals. These made good examples of his magpie hand, and it would have been interesting to see them mixed with the tailoring.
As fashion grapples with notions of masculinity, we continue to see lots of boyishness on the runway (the season’s look so far is dad’s blazer paired with tiny shorts), but there was none of that at Blumarble. Instead, and to Alvarez’s credit, the Blumarble vision of youthfulness exists beyond age.
