At Albus Lumen, designer Marina Afonina has been feeling the weight of the world. “I feel like the world is kind of collapsing—you have wars, a pandemic, the recession,” she said. “That feeling makes you want to embrace something else and be a bit of a rebel; I wanted to go hard, add a youthful energy that is a bit of a shock to the system.” The show opened with a semi-sheer blouse with knotted details worn with loose trousers belted at the waist for a paperbag-waist effect which captured the skater-inflected silhouette that dominated her new lineup. Though it was a departure for the designer, it felt truthful because at its root were archival pieces from previous collections, which were the starting point for this season.
“I wanted to repurpose things; a less is more kind of thing,” she added. “Sometimes when you have less resources, something new comes up—I wanted to make something different and I didn’t know what it was going to be.” Clothes were deconstructed and repurposed; and fabrics were hand-distressed, bleached, embroidered, tie-dyed, dip-dyed, and even spray painted. A collared linen shirt the color of putty was decorated with seemingly haphazard stitches that ran every which way, the loose threads blowing in the wind as the model stomped by; it was worn layered over a white linen skirt and a pair of semi-sheer narrow leg beige trousers. Acid-wash denim pieces were both straightforwardly sporty—loose baggy shorts worn low on the hips—or more fashion forward in their (de)construction. See: a top that looked to be a button-down worn backwards, an arm through one sleeve and the rest draped over the model’s shoulder; or a jacket with puffed sleeves that was layered underneath another jacket-esque piece, laid flat and “tied” around the model’s waist. Elsewhere, an algae-green knitted dress was embroidered with beads and hand-distressed with holes. The model wore it as a skirt, with the bodice folded down at the hips, with a sheer long sleeve pullover tied at her waist.
Although the collection was a 180 from the designer’s usual offerings, it captured Afonina’s signature ease; along with the general boho feeling that is currently taking over fashion. Her washed-on-the-beach take on the trend was indeed rebellious, but also hopeful—the sea as a site for rebirth.
