Eugene Rabkin is the founder of stylezeitgeist.com. He has contributed articles on fashion and culture to The Business of Fashion, Vogue Russia, Buro247, the Haaretz Daily Newspaper, and other publications. He has taught critical writing and fashion writing courses at Parsons the New School for Design.

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Thom Browne S/S 16 Men’s – New York

Fashion

Yesterday, Thom Browne presented a capsule menswear collection for the inaugural men’s fashion week in New York. The presentation, titled The Officeman, was held at nine in the morning, but Browne is one of the very few designers whose work demands such commitment from the fashion crowd.

The presentation was held in what was essentially a concrete cube. The line was long as only twenty people at a time were allowed in (the complimentary coffee and croissants helped). But it was well worth it. Once you stepped inside you found yourself in a completely mirrored room. In it was an office desk with a typewriter and some stationary items, all polished like heirloom silver on a wedding day.

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Inferno: Alexander McQueen

Culture, Fashion

Proliferation of books on the designer Alexander McQueen since his suicide in 2010 has been a boon to his fans. Or an unabashed attempt by publishers to exploit his death for monetary gain – you decide. On my recent visit to the “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” exhibit in London there was literally a wall of books devoted to him. Before his death the number of books I remember seeing devoted to McQueen, probably the most talented designer who has ever lived, was zero. The best attempted at analysis was done by Caroline Evans in her important book, “Fashion at the Edge.”

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More Photos From S/S 16 Men’s

Fashion

We figured the more photos from this past men’s fashion week the better, so here are some I have taken. While I possess neither the skill nor the equipment of the three photographers that shoot for StyleZeitgeist in Paris – A.P., Julien Boudet, and Matthew Reeves (thank you all!) – I hope you will still enjoy them, as they are shot from different angles and often at close range. The images are arranged in chronological order – Haider Ackermann, Rick Owens, Boris Bidjan Saberi, Julius, and Ann Demeulemeester.

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Fashion Week Ramblings – S/S 2016

Fashion, Features/Op-Ed

“Nothing,” answered a prominent New York buyer when I asked her what she liked during this past men’s fashion week. While I wouldn’t go this far, the Spring/Summer 2016 season was decidedly mixed. The overarching question, which began forming in my head during the first day of shows in Paris was, “What makes a good collection?” Is it the theme or its execution? Do we look for a designer to tell an interesting story, to interpret a theme worth exploring through clothes, or to produce beautiful, interestingly constructed garments? Ideally, both.

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Thomas Tait at Pitti Uomo

Fashion

Yesterday, Thomas Tait, the young, Canadian born designer based in London, presented an installation at Pitti Uomo in Florence. Until last year, when he won the LVMH prize for young designers, Tait’s talent was roundly unappreciated; and even yesterday the shy designer looked as if he still wondered what happened and how he ended up…

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Berlinde De Bruyckere Monograph

Culture

The Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere is famous for her striking sculptures of wax and epoxy that resemble flesh in all its disfigured, vulnerable glory. She has been making these since the 1990s, but there has not been a definitive monograph of her work until now.

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Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace

Culture

Postpunk and goth are two subcultures that came and went without a bang – amorphous, indefinable, unbracketed. There was something, and its elements were clear enough to see, but to make a structure of the thing was futile. And that is exactly the way the scene liked it.