What's With All The Extra Sleeves At Fashion Week?
Fashion's got a new obsession and it would appear that it's been inspired by tentacled creatures of the deep. Well, possibly not, but octopuses do spring to mind when reviewing some of the amazing outerwear creations from this recent AW19 fashion show season.
Whether it was the attachment of extra sleeves to outerwear, the deconstructing of the sleeve and its re-fashioning as a scarf, belt or shawl, or the addition of sleeves on items they usually have no part of (ie. bags), the humble sleeve was having a major moment this fashion month.
Deconstructed sleeves
Take the idea of a sleeve - usually a simple sheath for the arms - and pull it apart, re-imagining it all over again.
This was done either by slitting it open, as Lanvin has done in their Paris show, or making a different opening for the arm and letting the sleeve hang loose behind the shoulder, as Ports 1961 demonstrated in London, or simply by multiplying the sleeve or its components, as seen at Vivienne Westwood's Paris show.
Sleeves as scarves
There were jumpers tied every which way throughout this fashion month, but sleeves tied round the neck, often over the top of an already-existing jumper, was a firm trope of the season.
We saw this demonstrated clearly at both the Hellessy, which had extra sleeves tied both at the neck and the waist, and Gabriela Hearst shows in New York.
Sleeves as belts
Tying your jumper round your waist is definitely back and not just for streetwear. But certain brands decided to incorporate extra sleeves into their clothes, at waist height, specifically for sleeve-belt purposes.
Demonstrated here at Theory's AW19 presentation.
Sleeves on bags
And if it wasn't extra sleeves on the body, it was extra sleeves pretty much anywhere else too.
At Claudia Li's New York runway show, even the bags had additional sleeves.
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