BDMOTP is in Paris during fashion week at a showroom on St Germain right behind the famous eponymous church to visit ModeaParis: Carven, a brand resurrected from the past, first as a woman’s brand, and then more recently as a new brand for men, and it seems as if this simple double-syllabled brand name as well as the retro font of the name itself, conspire to introduce to us this classy & marvelous 80’s retro collection – you know, the time of Disco, the Bee Gees, John Travolta & Olivia Newton John, but then without all the hoopla and the pop culture – a time of sobering plain colors (mustard, jet black, carnelian red), plain patterns (stripes, squares), simple and plain forms (wide peak lapels, elongated ribbed turtlenecks, slim trousers), and that ubiquitous yet subversive item which managed to define an entire decade with a single stroke of sartorial genius: Tight leather (disco) dress pants for men (here on display in the color mustard no less)! A crime against fashion never to be repeated.
Small wonder then that when the decade was over that people tried to put the lid on it as soon as possible, but when you closely look at the style of the font of the letters in the word Carven above, what comes to mind again and again is not only the simplicity, the functionality, and the plainness of the decade, but also its inimitable style: For this is the time when the first ‘urban’ of the seventies is moving toward the ‘cosmopolitan’ of the eighties, and in the details of the collection we see embroidered and printed thus on the sweaters and the shirts the simple motifs of the very first global tech icons – cassette tape recorder players, old TV sets, and of course this great grandfather of the iPod, the Sony Walkman.
For those of you not old enough to remember when navy blue still looked like grey, when brown was mustard, and when carmine or crimson was still carnelian, when your shawl lapel had a peak, your pants were tight whether short or long, and when stale-looking longer or well-combed hair was not a crime (yes people used to carry combs as strange as that may sound today), and when people were not yet defined by their luxury accessories or their technological gadgets, there DID exist among us a real neo-urban romanticism, aye a longing even today still, for the simplicity and simple functionality of life the way it was back in the 80’s.
A Carven Press image
And Carven hits this feeling & concept right on the nail with their sleek new menswear collection: Brilliantly retro for a new age and a new century the recent past has all of a sudden become distant yet present in its style when we watch the carefully thought out Carven tailoring & design here behind the old church of St Germain. Retro materials like soft wools, mohair, and alpaca – lines and stripes out of sync – the softer faded colors, the lack of spectrum – the accentuated lengths of the coats and the colors and the sleeves – and aye, those pants, those very tight pants – those shockingly very tight leather pants – for men, the ones you don’t take home to mother – because they were supposed to have died with Rick James those pants (look it up) – or so BDMOTP thought, until we discovered this marvelous eighties retro collection in full color, in slim fit, and in full leather gear.
Posted by Sandro Joo and photos by Franz Kennedy.
