“It’s about the idea of protection, of being on the move, traveling,” said Hed Mayner on a Zoom call. “Dynamism. Transforming clothes into objects. Plenty of pockets, to make outfits feel like home.” Indeed. The humongous volumes rendered in robust canvas and hardy cotton drill that dominate this collection can be easily associated with sheltering carapaces. It seems that they’re carrying you with them, more than the other way around.
Mayner shot the look book one hour outside of Paris, in what looks like a dry, deserted no-man’s-land. “It could be anywhere. I didn’t want to reference nature or some specific landscape,” he said quite matter-of-factly. “Clothes are what they are, there isn’t any double meaning.” Yet there’s a heroic streak in Mayner’s visuals. Against an open sky, his creations stand upright like sculptures—totemic, excessive, and prodigious. A vast racerback is covered in “a paranoia of pockets,” according to the press notes. Cargo pants and trousers are gigantic, falling in wide pools of fabric at the feet. A moleskin suit would’ve made David Byrne’s look like kidwear.
Mayner’s approach is apparently straightforward, or at least this is what he wants you to believe: “I try to avoid stereotypes—this isn’t workwear, what I’m trying to create is something essential. These clothes are just silhouettes; they aren’t either male or female. They’re functional, protective, like dynamic cocoons,” he stated. Yet his uncompromising, almost brutal design vigor feels rather like the proud, generous gesture of a romantic.
