Having just set up a Paris outpost, Kiko Kostadinov is “stepping into a new chapter.” Whereas past outings have referenced characters from books, movies, or his imagination, the designer said that this season felt like the right time to look back on his own output and reconsider certain themes. In his show notes, he described the effort as “an aggregate manifesto of gestures and forms.”
In a season awash in earth tones, the designer made a bid for “letting the eye travel through color” by punching looks up with shots of anise, neon green, and washed-out pinks and blues, worn in layers or worked in stripes. Rather than emblazon his clothes with a logo or lettering, the designer fine-tuned darting techniques that etch out a K in fabric, part of his research into “building a new language and claiming space rather than changing every season.” A “blurred” floral print jacquard also felt fresh, as did a series of leather bags strung, candy-like, with colorful plastic rings. Those returned on a series of “crown” headpieces in felt by Noi Kamo—which gave the brand’s followers not one rising talent to watch, but two.
