10 March 2025 |
How many times do seasoned editors walk out of a show with their minds blown? That’s what happened after Duran Lantink. Delivering on every level, the designer’s AW25 show was nothing short of brilliant. Aesthetically daring, technically accomplished, precision cut, thoughtful and full of fascinating ideas it was served with a large dose of wit and an unforgettable pair of prosthetic breasts.
We climbed the stairs to an office stetting, (corporate realness is a big theme) where Duran’s admin team of opera singing catwalk extras did admin as well as providing the live soundtrack. Then the show started and everyone immediately sat up. Enter the female model Mica Argañaraz wearing a male chest prosthetic (complete with six pack), with a pair of black trousers, tailored with an interesting fold detail at the waist and just the right amount of slouch through the leg. Message received.
Lantink is a designer who can cut as well as play with padding and proportions and wants to challenge the gender dichotomy. There’s nothing new in women wearing men’s clothes on the catwalk, but wearing men’s bodies? That’s radical.
Next, something wild: a voluptuous snakeskin lampshade-skirted mini dress, its shoulder line and collar swelling up as high as the models ears – creating an arresting new ‘no-neck’ Lantink proportion. Cow skin, zebra stripe, leopard and tiger pattens all followed on belted jackets and funnel neck catsuits with padded hips. Bad taste? He’s happy to play with that. “It makes it all wild,” he said of his animal patterns which were sometimes mixed with army camouflage – talk about hiding in plain sight.
Lantink riffed on business pinstripes, adding a matching, wide padded cummerbund around the middle. Clothes migrated about the body. A classic button down shirt was cleverly morphed into a very chic skirt. Every single look offered a new proportion, a new idea. “It really is important to start figuring out new things, and not really care about the rules too much,” he said.
How about a knitted dress orbited by marching infinity bands? Or an Aran knit pulled up over the head and worn with a padded trapper hat, tartan trousers and a matching kilt floating from a bar suspended at the waist so it stood away from the body? Boys and girls wore versions of that look. Two came out wearing jeans suspended in front of their bodies but naked from behind – the utter cheek of it!
In amongst the experimental proportions and playful ideas, there was plenty of stellar wardrobe pieces – leather motorcycle trousers, denim jackets, leather cargo pants and leather bombers, alongside a perfect leather duffel. The show ended with a mirror of the opening look, except it was a male model in those same fold fronted slouch trousers wearing a voluptuous pair of prosthetic breasts that jiggled provocatively with every step.
Titmatised? We were wowed. There aren’t many shows where you don’t want to miss a single look, but this was one. Lantink proved himself a brilliant tailor and ingenious knitter. In his approach to gender, proportions and technique – this designer had so much to say and expressed it with precision, style and great wit. And the designer, who is rumoured to be rebooting Jean Paul Gaultier ready-to-wear is just getting started. “Flawless,” said one editor on the way out. Absolutely.
Photography by Christina Fragkou.
