I wrote my first Post-Paris post three years ago today. My love for (and faith in) this idea has only grown. Last year, I met three coats I really liked. Here is how they persuaded me to commit to a bolder, bigger, badder Post-Paris 3.0. Happy Welcome!

The Absent Coat by Aleksandre Akhalkatsishvili

This lithe green coat first caught my eye on the Matériel runway in Tbilisi, Georgia. When I saw it again in a campaign shot by Georgian photographer Beqa Chokoshvili, I fell madly in love. Like, possible tattoo mad. Beyond the cool-factor of the garment, it evoked the grand drama of Russian literature (The Storm by Ostrovksy), welcomed provocative performance art ideas and lent itself to divergent critiques on desire and politics of body representation. The postcard resides on my desk, because it’s fashion at its Post-Paris best. Thank you, Aleksandre Akhalkatsishvili for inspiration!

The Painted Coat by Alice Nikitinova

I met this coat during the Night of the Museums in Erfurt, Germany. Underwhelmed by prior meh experiences, I wandered into the Visual Conversations exhibition with my curiosity on mute. This got my creative cogs turning again. I was so smitten by the irony in reducing clothes and objects of material production to abstractions in order to extract artistic value from them and/or enhance their social significance. As if only by flattening a thing into a painting we can recognize and acknowledge it as more than a thing. Again, cue great literature like The Overcoat by Gogol. Contemporary art and fashion is a (super)natural Post-Paris mix. Thanks, Alice Nikitinova for inspiration!

My Coat by Fedor Vozianov 

I was possessed by this coat at the Vozianov runway in Kiev, Ukraine. I loved the dark Gogol-inspired show so much (oh hello, Gogol, my old friend), I opened the Forbes review with it. In a moment of uncharacteristically willful submission to desire, I ventured backstage and begged, demanded, soul-bargained inquired about buying this coat, a single menswear piece in designer’s archive thus far. Measurements were taken, phone numbers exchanged, fingers crossed and breath held. Fast-forward to… literally every time I wear my beloved Vozianov coat, I feel elegantly hardwired into the Big Picture narrative of literature and art and geopolitics and emergent sharing economies and fading phobia-isms and yes, style to the umpteenth degree. True Post-Paris fashion can do that. I can do that. Spasibo, Fedor Vozianov for inspiration!

 

Here is to the next chapter of PostParis.com as a space for fashion, art, literature, performance and whatnot aligned with the evolving Post-Paris principles! Cheers.