Albus Lumen (Q2576)
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Albus Lumen is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Albus Lumen |
Albus Lumen is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
At Albus Lumen, designer Marina Afonina has been feeling the weight of the world. “I feel like the world is kind of collapsing—you have wars, a pandemic, the recession,” she said. “That feeling makes you want to embrace something else and be a bit of a rebel; I wanted to go hard, add a youthful energy that is a bit of a shock to the system.” The show opened with a semi-sheer blouse with knotted details worn with loose trousers belted at the waist for a paperbag-waist effect which captured the skater-inflected silhouette that dominated her new lineup. Though it was a departure for the designer, it felt truthful because at its root were archival pieces from previous collections, which were the starting point for this season.“I wanted to repurpose things; a less is more kind of thing,” she added. “Sometimes when you have less resources, something new comes up—I wanted to make something different and I didn’t know what it was going to be.” Clothes were deconstructed and repurposed; and fabrics were hand-distressed, bleached, embroidered, tie-dyed, dip-dyed, and even spray painted. A collared linen shirt the color of putty was decorated with seemingly haphazard stitches that ran every which way, the loose threads blowing in the wind as the model stomped by; it was worn layered over a white linen skirt and a pair of semi-sheer narrow leg beige trousers. Acid-wash denim pieces were both straightforwardly sporty—loose baggy shorts worn low on the hips—or more fashion forward in their (de)construction. See: a top that looked to be a button-down worn backwards, an arm through one sleeve and the rest draped over the model’s shoulder; or a jacket with puffed sleeves that was layered underneath another jacket-esque piece, laid flat and “tied” around the model’s waist. Elsewhere, an algae-green knitted dress was embroidered with beads and hand-distressed with holes. The model wore it as a skirt, with the bodice folded down at the hips, with a sheer long sleeve pullover tied at her waist.Although the collection was a 180 from the designer’s usual offerings, it captured Afonina’s signature ease; along with the general boho feeling that is currently taking over fashion. Her washed-on-the-beach take on the trend was indeed rebellious, but also hopeful—the sea as a site for rebirth.
13 May 2024
To the keening tune of A-ha’s “Summer Moved On,” Albus Lumen’s Marina Afonina returned to the runway for the first time in four years. With melancholic lyrics like “In the morning light/ I found out / Seasons can’t last,” soundtracking the opening look of a jet-black bikini under a sweeping duster coat, it could have set something of a mournful tone; but Afonina set things straight backstage: it was about facing a turning point and, as she admitted candidly, quite a personal one. “Fashion’s really hard work, you know? And then you feel sometimes, ‘do you want to give up?’ This time I wanted to go all out, or stop doing it.”The pandemic interrupted her trajectory: she was building her unisex offering and debuting bridal three years ago, but things got tough. Happily, though, when the stakes are so personal, the results can be potent, and Afonina, who chose the latin phrase for ‘white light’ as her label name, is a highly-driven optimist.In her first full embrace of eveningwear and the return of bridal she did go all out: double-layer sheer silk slips, a plunge-neck lean-line maxi with trailing neck tie, and a drop-waist tiered dress in varying shades of Afonina’s signature neutrals—bone, seashell and driftwood—had black-tie, and wedding-day, appeal. A quilted silk robe coat and long-sleeve dress in shortbread, tenderly draped around the hips, made sense of Afonina surprise-namechecking of Grace Kelly, and “old glamour,” given she’s hitherto shunned embellishment for the raw and natural.The teardrop pearls like raindrops spangling a cowl-neck dress jibed with her major touchpoint: a moody, misty day in summer. “It’s like she’s walking the coastline, and there’s pieces of sand stuck to her,” she said of linen coats festooned with pebble-shaped beads and buttons like precious flotsam and jetsam. Writing about coastal-ease is near inevitable at Australian fashion week but, Afonina was one who led the charge in the country’s brand of minimalist ocean-adjacent effortlessness. Here, she reprised crochet and knits in instantly-desirable dresses, pareos, and suiting with a grown-up slant. Clever moments like a slubbed collarless jacket, a low-key Australian version of tweed, will see her a step ahead again.Afonina laid out three words for this collection—nostalgia, faith, and future—the first was in being true to her core.
The faith is pouring it all into a runway return, and the future: she’s banking on the poignancy and polish to launch an elevated rework of her label. It was a collection worthy of going all-in for.
19 May 2023
Simple, sparse clothing with a sort of earthen feel is what Marina Afonina promises in her Albus Lumen collections. She’s at her best, though, when she takes her brand name—“white light” in Latin—more abstractly.For resort 2022, there is plenty of sleek, ultra-minimalist ivory and ecru, but her more textured and colorful pieces are the stars. Chunky knits in sky blue and marigold worn with draped trousers look more lived-in and human than some of the beige-y separates on view—especially when the sweaters are worn alone, sans trousers or much else. The draped and ruched tops that scrunch up around models’ torsos are also relatable. As a stylist turned designer, Afonina’s strength is the sureness of her eye; pieces like these prove she has the sureness of hand to go with it.
2 June 2021
Marina Afonina was a stylist before she started her brand, Albus Lumen, and that editor’s eye has never left her. For Resort 2019, she was inspired by Pablo Picasso’s ceramics and the timeless style of his daughter Paloma. The designer sent out summertime essentials with a carefree spirit in a color palette of dusty blues, vermilions, and chocolate browns.The long, lean silhouette might lead guests to read Albus Lumen’s collection as appealing to a customer of Céline or The Row, and while that woman might drift toward Afonina’s creations, her clients also have a sunnier spirit. You could picture the Jacquemus fan reaching for a deep emerald slip dress with a low-slung bit of draping around the hips or a waft-y brown minidress with knife-pleat ruching. A long pale blue knit maxi dress had global appeal; it’s the sort of thing you could see women from Tbilisi to Los Angeles showing off on their Instagram feeds with one of Albus Lumen’s slouchy miniature bags. The accessories, from leather bucket hats to head scarves, helped ground the collection in an arty world, but there was plenty for a pragmatist, too, like soft-cut blazers or a loose, belted dress.
15 May 2018