Hed Mayner Is Ready for His Close-Up
I'm a big fan of big clothes and no one at Paris Fashion Week is wider than Hed Mayner. The Karl Lagerfeld Prize winner is one of the baggiest to ever do it and yet he's still not a household name. It's a crime, I tell ya.
You can pinpoint some likely causes for that, if you'd like. Hed Mayner doesn't make "normal" clothes: he gleefully blows up conventional clothes to XXXXL size, yielding familiar styles in unfamiliar shapes. It's a proportional potpourri, a mélange of scale.
There's a method behind Mayner's madness, too. His clothes aren't big for the sake of bigness but to explore the sartorial codes applied to the human form. Why should a blazer be cut close to the torso? Why should trousers taper neatly to the ankle? Why should shirts reveal the arm at all?
Oh, and it's all super comfortable. I love it.
As of Fall/Winter 2022, Hed Mayner moved his production to Tuscany, traveling between the Italian city and his Tel Aviv home to get closer to the clothing bearing his name.
The move amped up the tangible quality of his clothing but, also, Mayner's proximity to Italian tailoring seemingly infused his work with even more references to tailoring than ever before.
Sure, Hed Mayner's collections were never without a wink to the power suits of the '80s but his Fall/Winter 2023 collection dives even deeper with a plethora of peak lapel overcoats, drop-shoulder blazers, crisp collared shirts, pleated skirts, and voluminous slacks that nearly obscure the wearer's feet.
Core elements of menswear are exploded, expanded, and even undermined, as seen on the billowing coats that have their sleeves ripped clean off.
As advanced as it all is, longtime stylist and Encens founder Samuel Drira makes it look aspirational. No wonder attendees were posting Instagram Stories calling Hed Mayner Paris Fashion Week's "hidden gem."
Another cue that Mayner is very much on the cusp of crossing over into more mainstream success was nearly covered by his signature trousers.
For the first time, Hed Mayner is dipping into the footwear realm, partnering with Reebok on a set of remixed Classic Leather sneakers.
The resulting shape epitomizes the Hed Mayner ethos: the shoes are washed and then flattened by hand to create a loose, lived-in shape, some with a deconstructed tongue that wraps the upper.
Familiar, but not quite.
