Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
Christopher Kane's collections have always sat somewhere in the middle ground between art and clothing. The designer is known for taking unfashionable materials — he's a fan of plastic belt buckles, zip ties, and electrical tape — and making them runway ready. Today's Lost and Found-themed collection took the designer's passion for reimagining the mundane to another level.
"I have always been obsessed with recluses and the image of the outsider making their own world by hoarding things away," Kane explains in the show's notes. For fall 2016, "there is an idea of beauty expired," he writes. "Dead and thrown away beauty often looks better than when it was supposedly alive." Kane has previously turned zip ties into high-priced items, but that was child's play compared to the discarded items he employs in the name of fashion this season.
Cardboard boxes became a camel-colored leather used in skirts, tops, and tote bags. The lifespan of flowers, from blooming to decayed, appeared on photo-print dresses. Fringe, flower patches, and floor-grazing scarves added to the luxed-up-vagabond look — and it works. What is captivating about Kane is his ability to take art-school concepts that could easily go the route of gimmick and turn them into truly wearable, great-looking clothes.
The finishing touch is a new Christopher Kane logo, the letter K in Ye Olde English font applied to sweaters (see slide 15). In today's climate, what's a great designer without some brand recognition for the average folk?