Women's Resort 2020 “SINK OR SWIM”

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While today’s Off-White men’s show took on climbing as a key theme, the Resort collection, titled “Sink or Swim” headed toward the water. You can plunge into its source material by looking up Hyung S. Kim’s photo series of South Korean female free divers known as haenyeo.

 

For all the stunning expression they register, it’s impossible to ignore how their functional scuba outfits inadvertently pass for fantastic fashion statements. “They put themselves together in a unique way that I thought was super-inspiring,” said Virgil Abloh, who pointed to Off-White looks that were put together as near-identical interpretations—from belt bags mimicking their weighted belts to a misshapen floral tank that now appeared as a trompe l’oeil knit.

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Back when Abloh was fixated on inserting conceptual and high-brow art references into his Off-White collections, it felt as though he was flaunting a certain cultural wherewithal; because back then, perhaps, the sink-or-swim stakes were higher. Now, as he continues to ride such a phenomenal wave of success, he can turn out a pre-collection that feels confident, cool, and commercially complete. Yet for all this, you wonder whether he could have dived a little deeper.

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Now available at Off-White Melbourne and Off-White Sydney stores.