LUTZ HUELLE < > WROTE : > HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE CLOTHES
There is a rush, a fever, that has become overwhelming in the fashion industry. A desperation to make an impact — however and wherever possible. Irony and double-double-bluffs would appear to be the agreed-upon language. From designers and stylists to editors and punters, everyone seems to be in on it. So many designers, so many shows, so many fashion weeks. It is a time of extremes, a time of “more!” In the early ’00s, fashion was asleep — naive, cocooned, and unaware of its potential. This was the era of Maison Martin Margiela, Jil Sander, and Helmut Lang, the staunch visionaries who created wearable universes one collection at a time. Looks and garments were designed with intent, a concise vocabulary that became integral to the ongoing conversation season after season. This is the era in which Lutz Huelle began to hone his craft. A time when we looked to designers to answer the big questions, and when we looked to the runway to see a more ideal vision of society, not the latest meme-ready piece to be plastered all over Instagram feeds. Huelle’s work is a reminder that we can and should expect more from designers.
WORDS & FASHION MICHELE RAFFERTY PHOTOGRAPHY CLARE SHILLAND HAIR HIROSHI MATSUSHITA MODEL MARIA LOKS @ NEXT LONDON SPECIAL THANKS ANDREW BUNNEY
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Are we now moving so fast that something important is being left behind? Are we forgetting to remember what fashion can be? In a world of ever-faster fashion calendars and collections bearing labels such as “pre-Spring,” “Resort,” and “Cruise,” Lutz Huelle sits somewhere between anomaly and anachronism. Huelle studied at Central Saint Martins in London in the ’90s, graduating in 1995. From there, he went to Paris to begin work at Maison Martin Margiela, as it was then known, where he spent three years working closely with the Belgian designer. “It was so much about reality,” Huelle recalls. “He was one of the first people at the time who dressed people who I could understand, who I could identify with.”
The German-born designer’s introspective approach to clothing manifests in a practice described as “decontextualization,” in which the structure, volume, and identity of classic wardrobe pieces are transformed. Design consultant Michele Rafferty discusses how today’s fashion landscape makes him more relevant than ever via an email conversation with the designer and acclaimed Italian fashion journalist Angelo Flaccavento.
In 2000, he founded his eponymous label with partner David Ballu, a feat of passion and conviction. He has experienced the highs and lows, won awards, and the inevitable bruises and scars picked up over the years give him a unique and captivating voice. Twice winner of the ANDAM Fashion Award, France’s biggest, in 2000 and 2002, and the 2004 Ackermann Prêt à Porter Prize at GWAND fashion festival in Lucerne, Switzerland, Huelle has created an approach often described as “decontextualization.”
There is a mix of masculinity and femininity that gives real modernity to his collections: Prince of Wales check on a swing dress, masculine Alpha Industries bombers, and generic denim jackets — spliced open and reworked with panels of wool, metallic padding, or brocade. Such pieces have become the fashion insider’s “must-have” trophy. The intrinsic masculinity of the pieces isn’t diluted. It is, all at once, brutal and fine. These same jackets over the next season are worked into coats with shearling, dresses, and knits. Tulip sleeves and skirts have the same duality — they could be read as the most couture of shapes, dictating a retro “Madame” collection, but in Huelle’s hands they are just beautiful silhouettes. Printed slogans on jersey reminiscent of Katharine Hamnett are more clever bootleg than a grasp at streetwear. He has grown his loyal clientele, maintaining relationships with the people wearing his clothes and gaining a real understanding of who he is dressing. This is something that is easily overlooked amid the current panic for newness. Huelle has come of age. Quietly and purposefully, he has created a look that is recognizably his own. Maybe something in the attitude, atmosphere, and the casting in his shows is akin to the Margiela aesthetic. Ironically, he showed his Fall/Winter 2018 collection in Paris just before his former boss opened a retrospective at the Palais Galliera in the same city. He visited the exhibition for a walk down memory lane, but remains firmly entrenched in the pursuit of his own design legacy. More important than anything else is how clearly, calmly, and assuredly Huelle treads his own path. Whereas others take stylistic cues and decorative ideas, Huelle has the spirit. The connection to Margiela is genuine, having spent his formative design years there. Huelle talks of slowing down, taking his time to rework and refine some of those now-distinctive “Lutz looks.” He’s keeping the conversation going while taking care not to leave behind unexplored ideas. He takes responsibility for a woman’s experience when wearing his clothes. This level of commitment and his own nature — a bundle of delighted and delightful energy — make Huelle, Huelle's work, impossible not to love. In the spring of 2018 I discuss with Italian fashion journalist Angelo Flaccavento and designer Lutz Huelle, via email, Lutz's work, current fashion, ideas and philosophies.