John Richmond is an English fashion designer based in Milan. He was born in Manchester in 1960 and moved to London, then eventually to Italy to pursue his dreams. Like John Varvatos, he has often designed with music in mind. But this season's collection, inspired in part by the Manchester post-punk scene of the early eighties, felt a step off the beat. Austerity versus luxury for "the modern machine age", the notes had it : that amounted to baggy, boot-cut pants, shiny suiting, and cutout leathers, many accessorized with sparkling rhinestones, velvet, and dense patches of fur. There was more of a nineties brashness than an eighties edge, but either way, there wasn't much that was fresh; a fair bit was downright tacky. Joy Division and Iggy Pop ('Nightclubbing') banged on the soundtrack, but the best things here were the ones that felt farthest from the club. The handful of hooded, fur-lined parkas, for instance -the sort that are quickly beginning to emerge as a Fall 2011 staple. The collection of shiny black suits, sequins and metallics was "the juxtaposition of posterity and luxury", said John Richmond. He went back to his teenage years in Manchester, which were very utilitarian, somber and gray and then added luxury which included everything from bright sequins to draping fur coats. Nostalgia of days gone by ?
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