Hed Mayner is in search of lightness. “There is more of a sense of skin,” the designer declared backstage. Where in the past Mayner’s silhouettes have been defined by hulking structure—those signature broad, sloping shoulders; trousers wide at the hip and tapered at the hem—here they seemed more aware of the body they used to hide. Mayner swaddled the form in knits and suspended gossamer suitings and cottons from shoulders and waists. “I wanted to have something that is suspended from the body; that when you move, it fills you with air,” he said.
Mayner’s cocooning silhouettes, particularly his outerwear, have usually projected a sense of armor and protection, an architectural defiance that guarded the self from the other. That is no more. “We are living in this very emotional world, so this idea of protection is evolving and changing,” he said. “These more vulnerable textiles and silhouettes are a way of going against that.” Plainly, these clothes felt inviting rather than the opposite.
What Mayner was getting at was an “anti-structure.” He started the collection, he said, with the goal of “emptying” his garments. Such is his technical deftness that everything from parkas to tailored jackets appeared to have been suctioned and left as mere shells; the clothes looked soft and malleable yet not unsubstantial. Mayner also draped capelets into his jackets in single layers that ended at the woven selvage of the fabrics, and carved his armholes wide and deep. The same goes for the leg openings of his short shorts, which gave them a kind of buoyancy. Truly special were his handkerchief hem bottoms; they billowed as they walked and represented the freshness Mayner has found in this new territory.
Apropos, Mayner has relocated to Italy since the last time he was on the runway. It’s for a new project, he said, which has brought him closer to his factories. He reported that it’s been somewhat lonely, but that he’s enjoyed embedding himself in a new culture. The move may be one impetus for his pursuit of lightness, yet one look at the news and it’s clear: We could all do with some levity these days.