Escape the city

Isabel Marant SS22: pack your bags, we’re off to the countryside!
By Alex James Taylor | Fashion | 24 June 2021

You may have seen the SS22 Isabel Marant cast legging it through the Paris streets with picnic boxes, flasks, deckchairs and parasels piled around them and stuffed under their arms like vacationing buckaroos – the avant-garde pop of franco-american sibling duo Faux Real urging them forwards. These shots made up the teaser clips for a collection sprinting towards adventure.

Feelings of escape and IRL fun are obviously pretty poignant topics right now, but Isabel Marant made them her own. Plugging into an 80s/90s sportswear spirit, these guys layer up in order to save rucksack space: coats over gilets over hoodies over tees. Lightweight raincoats under heavier outerwear paired with colour-block branded sweatshirts, fleeces or loose shirting. Bucket hats, swim shorts and slides are for the beach, while cosy fisherman knits are for campfire tales. Elsewhere, traditional Navajo blanket patterns meet all-over florals and Prince of wales check coats mingle with patterned joggers to create the formal-informal splicing Marant absolutely nails.

And here’s the clincher: Isabel Marant and her family frequently escape Paris to stay in a cabin they own deep in the forest. Without water or electricity, they spend their time gardening, cooking and hanging out together. “It’s more a question of emptying your mind of all the stress from the week and doing very simple things,” the designer told us in HERO 19. “We have a river so we do a lot of paddle-boarding in the summer time.” So when it comes to countryside escape plans, you’re listening to a pro.

GALLERYCatwalk images from Isabel Marant SS22





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