Carhartt WIP interrupts your programming

Fashion houses often bring out the greatest hits: a slew of veteran supermodels and – for a brief moment – bang! We’re back to the ​’90s. (Even though most of us are too young to remember them the first time round.)

It’s a killer marketing strategy that nostalgia-obsessed kids can’t get enough of these days. And no one currently knows what kids can’t get enough of better than Marc Jacobs, whose diffusion line Heaven has been speaking to the latest cohort of disassociated youth since 2020 (and on our cover in 2021).This month, he’s been pulling the party poppers for his brand’s – the main one’s – 40^th anniversary. Yes, it was 40 years ago that New York’s golden boy showed his graduate collection at Parsons School of Design. As part of the celebrations, he rallied together the brand’s friends for a campaign shot by Juergen Teller (himself a collaborator since 1997). Cue: Cindy Sherman, Chloë Sevigny, Sofia Coppola and FKA twigs showing us that indelible irreverence that made MJ a cult name.

So, how easy would it have been for the designer to hit the history books when he presented his AW24 show last Friday? Very. Which is why it was cool the show wasn’t packed with celebrity pals strutting their stuff down the runway. Rather, this was the designer playing dress up, with models as his dolls. Like being a tiny toddler trying on mum’s adult heels, Jacob’s latest collection felt like sweet, sweet fantasy.

We’re currently fighting off temptations courtesy of Miu Miu’s latest collaboration with Church’s. Sharp, dishevelled, painfully chic – and that’s just the campaign. Zoom in a little closer and check out the brand-new brogue, christened the ​“Shanghai”, that fixes the pesky smart-casual conundrum.

Meanwhile, Brit model Edie Campbell is front and centre of 16Arlington’s SS24 ad, wearing collection highlights soon to be found on a party girl’s back near you. Dior has a night in for its latest campaign, with American photographer Tina Barney taking over a posh manor house while the models play a game of statues. Lastly, there’s Carhartt WIP, whose SS24 campaign harks back to old home videos taped over, scratched and a little disoriented. The brand’s art director, Tim Kottmann, was inspired by DIY punk zines, early hip-hop videos (we’ll place our bets on Hype Williams) and CCTV footage. Smile for the camera!

Kick back, relax, and Walk With Me – or, rather, take a leisurely stroll around Birkenstock’s brand new, first-of-its-kind studio at The Truman Brewery in Shoreditch. Opening this week, it’s a major hub chock full of free programmes and events in a chic, concrete-clad building with a plush sofa in one corner (there comes the ​“kick back”), and a makeshift factory in the other, to get our heads round just how the experts of German comfort do it. Over the next few weeks, there’ll be artists in residence taking over the space in workshops open to the public. Kicking things off is Londoner and Royal College of Art graduate Helen Kirkum, whose practice is dedicated to making sustainable footwear, diving head-first into innovative design, craft, products and values. During her takeover, Kirkum will be making special, one-off pieces using Birkenstock’s comfort-first materials. Not a bad fit, eh?

Head down to Birkenstock Studio: Walk With Me, open Thursday-Sundays from 12pm-7pm. Dray Walk Gallery, 91 Brick Lane, E1 6QL

If you’re in the market for a spruce up, Alexander McQueen’s got you covered with its SS24 collection. Pick from a whole host of rail improvement works, including a snazzy trompe l’œil bomber jacket, killer denim, impeccable black trousers and splashy prints courtesy of a collaboration with Simon Ungless, a designer who was part of the original McQueen team.

Alternatively, for fans of impeccable denim, head down to Yamane and Co’s Soho pop-up store from 10^th February. If you’re unfamiliar with the name, don’t worry – you’re not out of touch. It’s the new brand from Evisu founder Hidehiko Yamane, who has reunited with the OG team who helped bring the cult label, born in Osaka, to the world back in the 1990s. Three decades later and Yamane’s back.

Visit 33 Great Windmill Street, W1D 7LR from 9^th February – 31^st March, where Yamane and Co will be selling the goods

Here’s a designer we’re excited about: Paolo Carzana, who recently graduated from Central Saint Martins’ MA course. Romantic, elegant, disruptive and steeped in historical references, we’re keeping a keen eye on this one. And you should, too!

And finally, the ultimate perk of working at THE FACE? Early film screenings. Last Wednesday, we headed down to watch the upcoming documentary on John Galliano’s life, High & Low. It takes us from the Gibraltar-born designer’s early days growing up in South London, discovering the underground scene of the 1980s, the sex, drugs and runway shows of the 1990s and, of course, the impending comedown: the racist and antisemitic rant outside a Paris cafe that was caught on camera in 2011, ending Galliano’s 15-year reign as Dior’s creative director. Fashion has a notoriously short memory, but this documentary does a good job in getting the answers from Galliano as to why, and how, it happened – not allowing him to gloss over with half – arsed answers.

John Galliano: High & Low is out in cinemas from 8^th March