Berluti Gets Graphic with Artist Lev Khesin

Debuted last week, Berluti's Fall/Winter 2021 collection by Kris Van Assche features a colorful collaboration with contemporary artist Lev Khesin.

Berluti Fall/Winter 2021

Titled Living Apart Together, Berluti's Fall/Winter 2021 collection aims to restore the limits of human connections. Debuted during a digital performance last week, artistic director Kris Van Assche reflected on the constraints of life today in collaboration with video director Antoine Asseraf and Yoann Lemoine aka Woodkid. In the seasonal film, "Behind the Wheel" by Depeche Mode plays as the collection appears in an installation composed of graphic lines on a linoleum floor. Social distancing in full effect.

After working with Brian Rocherfort for Spring, this season Van Assche turns to contemporary artist Lev Khesin. The Russsain artist who resides in Berlin adapted his practices and techniques into Berluti's Fall/Winter 2021 attire, creating abstract shapes via tactile models composed from layers of silicone paint. Thin and unstructured silhouettes inside the collection express contemporary male tailoring that rewrites the rules of workwear and sportswear. There is no lack of passion for Van Assche's color blocking either, which is further emphasized by Khesin's works. Originally used for leather shoes, Berluti's patina pervades men's jackets and bags, while the prints are exact reproductions of the artist's works with patterns lined up between jacket and pants.

Elsewhere, jackets and suits feature the norvégien point, a traditional embroidery technique from shoemaking, which is applied with a white seam in the profile of quilted leather jackets, leather jumpsuits, and padded down jackets. Throughout the Fall/Winter 2021 collection Van Assche continues his research for the new decoration. His bags are adorned with Berluti's signature multicolored pendant designed by Spanish artist Jorge Penadés, whose art revolves around the upcycling of leather waste. While formal shoes are raised with a triple-layer platform and a textured platform sole—the rigorously squared-toe boots return to the technique of the Norvégien point while new sneakers in patinated leather continue the dialogue between formal and sportswear.

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Berluti Fall/Winter 2021