At BDMOTP we are great lovers of the Carven brand – this is the third time we are writing a cover – because of its classic retro early eighties look which somehow perfectly seems to blend in with the concept of what today would urban chic, le chic urbain in French. Back in the eighties fashion was fashion and mode was mode and it was an exclusive domain in which styles dwelt for one season or perhaps half a decade and what you bought was what you wore for that winter, and the next, whereas today times change so much and so fast and so unpredictably in styles and fashions, that it comes as a sigh of relief to find a brand which will always offer that classic retro look, that Carven look, that undeniable look from the early eighties, when the information age was still a sci-fi illusion far away in some dark films. And so Carven fills this modern need, not of thrills and frills, but of classic elegance and style for men in winter who are not so much trying to be super cool or successful, but for men who like to live well and comfortably in a stylish urban but discrete fashion. You can call it handsome, distinct, discrete, elegant, and urban.

Thus Barnabé Hardy succeeded again in bringing us an AW 16/17 collection which you are going to love. And we are proud to be able to introduce it by means of this article.

The Carven winter wear includes the traditional sweaters of old, the classic scarfs and the different types of necks suitable for winter (funnel and turtle), but with the magic Carven signature that the colors are not just winter grey but hark back to the pastels and colored shades of the eighties. This gives the collection a look recognizable by connaisseurs only. We see the duffle coat (so eighties), the parka, the windbreaker, the bomber jacket, and also the blouson in fabrics of tweed, terry, crazed nylon, wool and corduroy (so eighties), stitched together by flocking, embroidery, knitting, and weaving. Indeed, the perfect retro look must be from the eighties because it is such a hidden and forgotten decade.

A special mention goes out to Carven’s instant-cult-classic hybrid sport shoe logo sneakers which could be cited in the brochures of a museum of post-modern art.  You see a lot of brands trying to break into that urban pop art shoe-slash-sneaker market but no brand succeeds as wonderfully as Carven. And we think it is because they are discrete and private, which brings me to my final but important point that not all things which are popular in fashion are also necessarily public or vulgar. Indeed some pop fashion is rather very private, precisely because it is also art.

Posted by Sandro and photos from the Carven press office.