Natasha Zinko is one of just a few designers still imagining a post-societal future. (Even Demna swapped his boggy dunes for the sun-soaked hills of Los Angeles last December.) These dark ruminations have seen the designer travel from monster-torn metropolises to the vast unknown of space, which is where she continued to roam with her resort collection. “I’m Ukrainian, and so, the war changed everything for me,” she said. “I’m in the process of exploring what security and protection might look like in these surreal, unstable times.”
Zinko’s space people were photographed with their limbs bound and ski masks stretched across their skulls in deconstructed waistcoats, strapped-up trenches, and bandage dresses. Shrunken flannel bombers were constructed with imposing space-suit sleeves, and wide-leg boiler suits cinched the ribs. Just about everything was belted and branded in industrial hardware. The designer’s six-season collaboration with the stylist Betsey Johnson is now so seamless that it is difficult to know where direction begins and influence ends. “She’s very good,” the designer said. “We speak the same language.”
These are menacing designs that will leave the wearer feeling equal parts dominant and dominated. (The sea of vacant stares emanating from this season’s models would suggest both things are true.) “It’s a question of survival,” Zinko said. “Which, to me, also means being comfortable.” A series of distressed denim pieces—hulking jeans, capri pants, ankle-length coats, cut-out minidresses—are deceptively soft to the touch thanks to having undergone several rounds of intensive acid treatments. “These imperfections give the clothes a sense of life.” On the other hand, you’ll note the box-fresh underwear in these pictures. This is perhaps the last facet of a civilized society that Zinko is clinging onto. “Well,” she said, with a smile. “We all need to feel fresh and clean for the day ahead.”
