Today s collection marked both the tenth anniversary of Johan Lindeberg s brand and a creative departure for the designer. He declared his ambition to bring his signature line to "a new level of luxury and personal expression," and it turned out that wasn t just marketing speak. Gone from the runway were his skinny jeans and updated athletic wear (they ll continue to fulfill a lucrative role at diffusion level). In their place was an unexpected play with proportion and volume. Lindeberg showed high-waisted, button-fly, loose-legged pants; long shirts layered under cropped jackets and pea coats; an elongated patent bomber jacket; and sweeping greatcoats. He may not be the first designer you d count on to make such a concerted, persuasive case against the tyranny of lean, but for Lindeberg, thin is clearly no longer in.
Executed in grays, blacks, and muted greens and pulled together by stylist Alistair Mackie s brilliant touches—heavy boots, wool watch caps worn pushed back on the models heads, silver bead necklaces at the throat—the clothes had a sort of new-wave vagabond feel. (The menswear was paired with a handful of Goth-glam women s outfits by Lindeberg s wife Marcella.) Johan himself described today s look as a mix between "a French artist and Manchester in the eighties." And with this cohesive, well-executed outing, he showed that he s ready to embark on a new order.
