Only clever Andreas Schmidl and Josef Lazo would think to take on toxic masculinity using wellness as a Trojan horse. If a slogan T-shirt that reads “Healthy Masculinity” offered a facile antidote to this pernicious condition, the designers dug in by focusing on running/activewear for fall. “Just having a healthy message is always a positive thing,” said Lazo on a call, “but what we were discussing, Andreas and I, is when your mind and your body and your physique—whatever that is for you—[are aligned], then you’re in health.” Schmidl added that “it has something to do with self-care.”
Here, maleness wasn’t expressed so much by hunkiness but by hotness. Sex is always top of mind at Lazoschmidl, as the collection’s title, “Pre-Work, Post-Orgasmic,” suggested. “We like the idea of running because you give your mind a pause. You can reflect on things; you are free in that moment,” observed Schmidl, who regularly clocks miles. “And then, also, it has a sexual arousing element to it; you are more hyped and energetic after the run, so it has also this Lazoschmidl idea, that little moment of skin and sweat and physical body experience.”
Reflective strips placed next to zippers on jeans drew the eye to the groin area. The same technique was more superfluous when applied to onesies and bikini-cut briefs. The latter are a bestseller for the brand, which showed at Close to the Skin, a shop in the Marais carrying underwear, bodywear, jewelry, and perfume.
The half shirt sleeves in the collection were meant to be part of an exercise-to-work continuum that wasn’t developed enough to be convincing. (It’s difficult to see an equivalency with the desk-to-dinner idea, because one would hope there might be time for a shower in between a workout and the office.) However, the addition of alpaca polos to the offering was interesting in that they introduced the idea of a sporty look into a collection with a sports-ready vibe. It’s an idea the designers might want to do reps with.
