Leave it to a Japanese artist and his one-man atelier, Iwakiri, to meticulously hand-craft jumbo goldfish as handbags. The verisimilitude is uncanny, down to the individually stitched leather scales. And while goldfish are the best-seller, he creates a variety of animal bags, including turtles, frogs, and other slick-skinned critters.
"Natural forms and curves are applicable to human architectures," says bag designer Konstantin Kofta, who's incorporated ornate baroque architecture — replicating actual chunks of the stuff — in his spring collection of backpacks and clutches. The Slovenian designer has evoked the shapes, curves, and decoration of the dramatic period, transferring them to sculptural leather, much like his unconventional recreations of skin, bones, and tar of previous seasons.
Presented at the spring 2016 collection, the mysteriously named 5AC is now available — John Galliano's first bag for Maison Margiela. With a lining that can be pulled outward to create a non-functioning bit of flash, the white goatskin bag is every bit as transformative as the original designer.
$2995 at select Maison Margiela boutiques and online
Never mind the name — none of the wood frames in Termite's glasses have burrowing bugs. Which isn't to say the workers at the UK-based company haven't been busy handcrafting the frames from birch plywood culled from sustainable sources around Europe. All box packaging, too, is made from recycled paper goods. Design-wise, the fall collection draws from the Bauhaus movement, with its unexpected combinations of clean, bold shapes and lines.
His first foray into eyewear, New York jewelry artist Chris Habana has launched a line of sunglasses with Korean eyewear label Gentle Monster. The capsule collection features three architectural frames in two colors, and coincides with the launch of Gentle Monster's first stateside store. The three styles — the Chola, the Hunt, the Fang — draw on Chris' signature pop-punk style with accents such as solid gold and silver diamond settings.
What do you get when you mix buffalo bone, bull leather, silver, bronze, and an eye for Brutalism? You get Rick Owens' studded and stacked cuff bracelet, new for fall. But if this hunk of wrist art is a little too intense for you, Rick also made simpler versions with only leather or leather and bronze.
$3,674 at Rick Owens
It's unclear what kind of netting this calfskin Céline bag for fall refers to: fishing, tennis, www. No matter, really, because the bundle of intertwined ecru flowers is a bigger head-scratcher. Together they make one of the more surreal creations to pop out of Phoebe Philo's ever-moving imagination, far removed from the minimalist hobos and wearable vest-bags she also showed in the collection. While reminiscent of trendy fringe, the net in fact appears to be a new thing — and the shape of things to come, as usual.
$3,600 at Céline
This pool floatie of a jacket from London designer Christopher Raeburn bridges concept and comfort. Not only does it bring back memories of childhood buoyancy, but it's surprisingly warm and super lightweight, too, as it's made of little more than latex and air. The hoodie alone could double as a cushion. Plus, the blow valves are exposed for easy re-inflation.
Fellow straphangers on the subway won't take kindly to the jacket, but if even they spitefully poke a hole in the latex, worry not, for it even comes with a puncture repair kit.
£949 at Christopher Raeburn
While it didn't get wood first, Prada is joining the action now with Prada Raw, a limited collection of women's sunglasses made entirely from black walnut or Malabar ebony. The curious eyewear marries classic design — including the house's Minimal Baroque style — with the calming effect of natural wood.
Beginning today, available exclusively at Prada stores in New York (5th Ave), Milan (Galleria), Paris (Faubourg St-Honoré), and London (Old Bond St)
