Boris
Bidjan
Saberi
SS17
Review by
George Reece
At what point does fashion
design end and costume
design begin? Where is the
line? Is it simply a question of
the end purpose of the
garments, whether they’re
tailored to a narrative or a
commercial public? Or is it
something about the clothes
themselves; a sense of place, of
time, of story? I merely ask,
because looking at the SS17
collection from Boris Bidjan
Saberi, one half expects Kevin
Costner to appear and shout
that the cyborgs are coming
and we should all take shelter
in the shattered wrecks of our
former cities. Neat trick.
This sense of post-nuclear grit is in
every decision the designer has made
for this collection, from the rough cut
of heavy fabrics to the colour palate
(oily greys, rubble browns, hard-hat
yellows), from the combat-ready
cinched waists and sleek gis to the
Photo: PR Boris Bidjan Saberi
almost absurdly wide knits that look like
they’ve been found on a dock and
brusquely repurposed. To view these looks
is to feel like you’re in a Cormac McCarthy
novel, or perhaps more accurately, in a Pixar
film as rewritten by Charles Bukowski.
Because while the aesthetic is far from
pretty; there’s a mechanical utility, an
innate brutality and ugliness, in every
piece; there is no lack of playfulness
and joy. There are trainers which
appear to have been lightly griddled on
Sleeves Magazine