Looks Fashion News

Abraham Ortuño Perez has a niece and a nephew, ages 9 and 3, whose great joy is to come to their doting uncle’s studio and add a little chaos while their parents, who work there, too, try to get things done. All in good fun, the designer said: the mess they make became the inspiration for this outing, his most official show yet.

Perez, who got his start with shoes, then bags, and now offers ready-to-wear, arrives with cred built at Margiela and then at Givenchy, Kenzo, Rabanne, Coperni, Jacquemus, and other labels. As for his own brand, “my idea of Abra was always playing with the feminine details of masculine clothes, because when my sister and I were kids, she was the tomboy and I was girly,” he said. “At some point, we kind of blended together.”

For fall, he imagined his niece rummaging through her parents’ closet and piling on whatever she laid her hands on. That produced a charming experiment with classic shirting, with multiple collars poking out of a deep V-neck paired with a skirt of green leather discs, or mille-feuille cascades of ruffles on an oversized shirt with XXL cuffs. Perez distilled his lifetime obsession with all things Barbie and kawaii into a pink fringed dress with a corseting detail inspired by his favorite Dior bag from that label’s Galliano era. “I always try to take one thing and make it another,” he said. “It’s nice to play with that kind of logic.”

In that spirit, Perez gamely seized on the idea of upholstery—a trend this season—by working chair seats into velvet-clad, fringed dresses. Gimmicky, yes, but all in good fun. The sassy, over-the-top fringe numbers—from T-silhouette dresses in metallic leather to boots—will please the maximalists out there. Ditto a couple of long gilets made from vintage rabbit-fur belts sourced here and there (“I think it’s always important to have a collector piece,” the designer offered). But it’s the seriously cool outerwear—cropped, mid-length, in shearling, faux fur, leather or wool, often with shortened sleeves to keep to the theme—that will likely catch on.

With PFW over, Perez is starting as the new creative director at CamperLab, a role he said would offer him more room to play with notions of masculinity while also building out his namesake brand. You had to be in the room to feel it, but as Perez took a bow with his two young inspirations, the energy was palpable. Now that he’s doing double duty, it will be fun to watch what the Paris/Mallorca/Alicante axis produces.