At the risk of revealing an obvious and immediate bias: I love Hed Mayner. The Israeli designer and Karl Lagerfeld Prize winner is, in my humblest of opinions, a brilliant designer undeservingly underappreciated by much of the fashion cognescenti.
Like his Spring/Summer 2022 collection, Hed Mayner's Fall/Winter 2022 line-up is filled with immense silhouettes generated by warped takes on familiar garments.
Puffer scarves are blown up to deliciously massive sizes, knitwear drapes past the knuckle, and Mayner's signature big blazers return in minimalist form, stripped of external buttons and lapels.
But to simply label Mayner's creations as merely "oversized" is to miss the point of his purposeful cuts, which playfully redistribute bulk to enhance ease and reframe menswear convention.
Arranged by master stylist Samuel Drira, Mayner's constant companion, the garments tell a story of usurped tradition. Staple garments are rendered new not by reinventing their construction, but by distorting their shapes, which in turn expands the canvas that Mayner paints atop.
His lush fabrics — wool gabardine, faux leather, washed denim, a Liberty London print from the very early 20th century — intermingle in surprising ways.
Note how one look will balance gargantuan outerwear with trousers that scrape the floor while the subsequent shot breaks up the shape with trimmer trousers or distressed knitwear bustling with distended fibers. Nipped waists pull together huge layers, creating shape where there was none before.
I love it: the results are fresh but not foreign, not simply sized up just because Mayner feels like making big clothes for once. He's always cut his garments full, emphasizing comfort and a refutation of convention.
There's a reason I was so excited simply to see a store stocking his wares in New York: it all makes a lot more sense when handled IRL, when you feel how his clothing drapes free from the body.
