LFW diary: Revolution is in the air at Peter Pilotto, Erdem and Todd Lynn

Fashion week hazard: Getting caught up in the moment, suddenly realizing you have no idea what’s going on with Libya. Insiders say fashion week looks glamorous but the reality is: there is no reality here.

So it was strange, in a good way, to read Peter Pilotto‘s show notes on revolts past (the Russian Revolution, the Paris Riots of ’68) and present (Egypt). Pilotto and partner Christopher De Vos promised to translate these into “seditious shirting details.” Forgive my skepticism.

The show was certainly a revolt against much of what they’re loved for: the contemporary-arty prints on beautifully cut, folded and draped dresses. First look? A great coat over swishy trousers with a skirt-flap attached (skirts over pants are the new skirts, FYI). All white? At Peter Pilotto? Call the riot police! But they wanted to wipe the slate clean and draw on their mad tailoring skills, and it worked.

Salem, who did the soundtrack, are known for their “chopped and screwed” sound (so a DJ told me once). That could be said of Pilotto’s new layering, too. The cut-up and respliced parts⎯like those skirt-flaps, or quarter-shirts⎯might not make sense, but on the whole is pretty rad.

And there were prints, but they seemed abstracted from plaids or Richard Tuttle paintings from the ‘70s. Colours⎯with the exception of one gown in chartreuse satin⎯were rust, dandelion yellow, powder blue; ugly, but when ugly is done right, we call it “intellectual.” Pilotto gets a solid A- from me.

If you want unapologetically beautiful prints, you can always go to Erdem, and yesterday, everyone did. Getting in was madness. Ah, but the show itself! Pure melancholy calm. After last season’s edelweiss-fresh embroidery and doily lace, Mr. Moralioglu’s return to painterly prints and jewel-box hues felt dramatic. There was something almost sexy, too, in these lusher florals, with their bursts of hothouse pink and blurred, impressionistic edges. Or perhaps it’s the looser silhouettes, fluttering away from his usual strict and prim lines. Either way, I left thinking of the Miami painter Hernan Bas, whom you should really Google-image. Now.

Erdem’s own art reference was the movie Pollock. He took inspiration from Lee Krasner‘s fraught marriage to Pollock and imagined an elegant housewife in silk and jewels, but also splattered in paint and coming apart at the seams. Erdem has always been romantic, but now he’s added heat and friction. In other words, yes, it was about sex.

Then, another revolutionary theme, at Todd Lynn. The idea, which is not a new idea for Lynn or anybody, really, was to create an armorial collection for the post-apocalypse. Futuristic fashion can be interesting enough, but less so if it’s borrowed heavily from seasons of Rick Owens past, which perhaps this season was. There were funnel-necked, sculpted leather jackets in murky hues, skinniest panelled pants, and asymmetrical fluttering jerseys. To escape the Owens comparisons, Lynn’s got stock in his strict tailoring abilities. His biggest fan? Juliette Lewis was sitting in front row. So rad. Near the end, Lynn introduced a few looks in brilliant strong red, which is the colour of fall ’11. One gown was slashed and draped in odd places and fell beautifully. When the revolution’s over, I hope there’s a party to wear it to…

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