D-MARKED: THE UNTITLED LOOK
“If you build it he will come” seems attuned to the Jean//phillip philosophy of fashion design.
His designs and his attitude escape the mold as he sheds little interest in exploiting the Danish nor Scandinavian look, being a Dane himself. His pieces tease men and fondle the female form with their contours.
As a menswear staple, he caters to layers and wraps as warmth is a look you can’t neglect in Nordic style. His Spring 2011 collection abolished symmetry entirely leaving models looking bandaged, almost sacredly adorned with a middle eastern flair. His Spring/Summer 2012 collection revisits this look of luxury rags, a clean cut man at a disarray with his wardrobe. Combining tailored black wool shorts with elongated T-shirts, Jean//phillip exaggerates distressed details like threads hanging from jacket tails and holes evocative of cigarette burns. Wool, jersey, coated fabrics, leather pieces and elastics all made an appearance this year during Copenhagen fashion week. This designer du jour and a, 10-year veteran of Danish design, is among the Danes best associated along the lines of a simple rebel.
His signature folds and stitching cast congruent angles upon blacks and greys. It would be a stretch to claim that fashion news increasingly covers the look of the Danes. Furniture, bikes, decor sure. Fashion? Perhaps for the off-radar profile they posses mystery and subterranean appeal. The vast, hermetic and very boreal land mass in Europe is Scandinavian fashion and they have it together. No two alike, the Nordic folk share a style different from the fashion scenes in Europe, the US and Asia. With their distinct physical features and sharp tribal demeanour, they silently compete amongst each other without bitterness and with a common alignment to useful, awkward, even outlandish design, unlike the more traditional French or Italian designs. The recent history of Scandinavian fashion traces patterns in simple wools and cashmeres, adhering to strict climate conditions. Their refined production (often of green mentality and refined technology) is constant. Garments are most commonly set apart from one another by infusing bold colours. Scandinavian design, from fashion to furniture is recognized as effortlessly luxurious as they manage to uphold cleanliness and minimalism preserving the affluent look. Their meticulous designers repeatedly deliver what outsiders may view as the essence of Northern European calibre.
This year couture glitzed near the Arctic bringing several accomplished designers to light during the Copenhagen and Stockholm fashion weeks. Swedish designer Camilla Norrback presented a classic native collection, pushing eco-luxury, and Henrik Vibskov explicitly highlighted his love for colour in his 2011 Autumn collection loudly turned up nothing short of borderless. Silas Adler, flaunted his line Soulland, pronouncing with careful detail the aesthetics of Scandinavian design with the accessory. On the Danish fashion front Annhagen, Stine Goya (partnered with Urban Outfitters, 2009), Baum und Pfergarten, David Andersen, and Malene Birger (MTV Queen of Fashion) all noteworthy. Consider these labels D-marked: Danish-approved for veering far enough off the ready-to-wear path to cozy up under high-brow Nordic fashion. These trained and talented pattern-makers and model-movers have perfected the art of buttoning up and boxing in the blondes and beaus for delicacy North of Prada and Dior.
Then there is Jean//phillip. His work evolves uncategorically as he passively breaks the rules, pouring his ideas out of the closet in an untitled manner. Meet Jean//phillip.
Photography by Gert Foget Nielsen, courtesy of Marlo Saalmink PR
