AVAVAV SS24
Who has time for anything nowadays? Surely not AVAVAV. If time is the supreme currency, it seems undisputable that 99% of us live in scarcity. A reflection both on the designer’s personal life and on the fashion system at large, AVAVAV SS24 Collection “No Time to Design” left the audience no time to breathe or fully grasp what was going on: models rushing like there’s no tomorrow (worth asking if there’s actually a tomorrow) stormed the catwalk and disappeared as quickly as they appeared. If a designer has no time to design, why should the audience have the time to properly experience their creations?
As we chatted with Beate Karlsson, she discussed how stressful and unforgiving the fashion calendar can be: the struggles of designing a collection according to fashion’s seasonal calendar while, at the same time, having to deal with contracts, lawyers and suppliers are almost infinite. Chances are if you’re a designer and you’re not completely stressed out, you’re probably doing it wrong.
Gimmicks aside, the clothes actually reflected these dynamics, with dresses tackled together with an unhealthy amount of pins, unfinished garments and an incredible dress cut asymmetrically and with buttons attached incorrectly. Who has time to be perfect?
““Incompleteness gives me calm””
“Incompleteness gives me calm” said the designer backstage, “imperfection is the summit” said Yves Bonnefoy. Would you tell them they’re wrong? We won’t.
At this point, it seems fair to wonder if retrospectively also AVAVAV FW23 Collection can be read as a critique of the fashion industry (things are falling apart), thus treating all the AVAVAV adventure as a critique of design reason. And, as in Kant’s Critique of the Pure Reason the process has to be carried out by reason (aka fashion) itself. Beate Karlsson is still designing amazing clothes.
photography DONALD GJOKA
words DAVIDE ANDREATTA
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