For his Pre-Fall 2018 lookbook, über-romantic Jonathan Simkhai went back to the source material and put out a collection deeply engaged with fashion history. While he might be known for his flamboyant uses of denim and silky lingeries, Simkhai is never confined with referencing just the recent past. Here, he went full-on renaissance with clothes that merged his brand’s glam girls with the aristocratic muses of the sixteenth century.
Suiting was of the seventies double-breasted variety, but updated with cutouts and slashing not seen this masterful since maybe the Holbein the Younger back in 1540. The slashing, going down pantlegs, was inventively stapled together for a modern take on the decadent look.
Other highlights included a slip dress in an inky blue picked up the light like an oil painting. An ultra-covetable robe coat in rusty satin had sleeves ingeniously tucked into decadent folds like it was just ripped from a Michelangelo.
Simkhai’s jeans were not totally absent however—here he just did it with a nod to the past, like a stand-out denim jacket with puff sleeves. Renaissance man indeed.
