Patrik Ervell (Q8854)
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Patrik Ervell is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Patrik Ervell |
Patrik Ervell is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Is ’90s nylon ripe for nostalgic refashioning as a material to hanker for? Patrik Ervell pitched that it is in this studiedly unspectacular yet authentically rooted riff on an intersection of West Coast slackerdom from the slow-to-load olden days of dial-up.Ervell returned to his signature “air jacket,” a sort of Patagonia-meets-Windrunner pullover blouson that was presented in various poppy color combinations and bore the shiny sheen of silicon coating. These were countered with two cuts of “polyurethane leather” shorts—one pleated and mid-thigh, one flat-fronted and knee-length—that chimed slightly grimily against the pre-athleisure athleisure above. Pared-down macs featured inbuilt belts and came teamed with totally back-then Carhartt but lighter cotton carpenter’s pants. Three T-shirts printed with authentically woo-woo Etch a Sketch patterns of the type you might have seen projected onto a sheet at some mid-’90s trance club were teamed with normal-fit acid wash jeans. Later the same patterns were prettily adjoined in a larger scale pattern printed on “breathable membrane nylon” short-sleeve shirts. There were sweatshirts featuring the same retro futurist color panel action we saw in the air jackets and at the end a triptych of three fine cotton nylon blazers—one khaki, one red, one blue—with slightly kicked carpenter pants below.Ervell is fixed on a place (San Francisco) and time (just pre-millennium) that is for him personally evocative enough to be the basis of his output as a designer—or at least it has been during the two collections this reviewer has caught. His delivery is excellent, authentic, and true, but unless you were there then—as I was lucky to be for a moment or two—it’s pretty hard to feel the same affinity Ervell does for the moment in time he’s trying to reboot. Perhaps what this collection needs is some more explicitly literal storytelling—an equivalent to Gosha’s naive-capitalist Cyrillics—to transmit its message more clearly to today’s post-millennium audience. Because San Francisco just before it spawned the modern world is certainly at least potentially just as evocative a zone for menswear nostalgia as post-glasnost Russia.
11 July 2017
The show notes waiting on our benches promised a collection inspired by “the new age and sci-fi–infused aesthetic of the early U.K. rave scene, and envisioned how they might have grown into adulthood.” As someone happily haunted by memories of mass massage and unfettered euphoria at Megatripolis, Whirl-y-Gig, Spiral Tribe, Megadog, and more, this was an alluringly personal pitch. What followed was indeed a remix of that time as seen through the less-outré lens of this one, all set authentically on New Rock shoes.Bang-on flashback garments included the oversize windbreakers in scare-your-mother colors, topstitched work pants in twill and denim, three-panel down coats (ah, Naf Naf), plastic ponchos (for raving in the rain), half-zip fleece approximations in tonal panels of mohair, an abundance of mock turtlenecks, and long-sleeved tees with abstractedly cosmic graphics inspired by crop circles (aliens make them, don’t you know). Those lanyards rang a bell, too. More mature, but still relevant to the source period, were the three-button, high-lapel tailoring—Prada menswear 1.0—and the bearishly huggable long coats in shaggily treated wool and mohair.Nostalgia is seductively harmless self-indulgence, yet to be useful it needs to give perspective to the present. The scene Patrik Ervell so accurately referenced was a genre of carnival that rose in the shadow of them-and-us conservatism. In many ways it echoed the youthquake of the ’60s. These things come in waves: Might the tide soon turn again?
1 February 2017
Patrik Ervelldesigns in esoteric terms—coded messages, crypto-kitsch, references to references. It makes for an odd yet oddly commercial vision of men’s sportswear. So while he’s once again mined the ’90s for Fall—as other men’s designers regularly do, namelyRaf Simons—Ervell gives his retro nod a peculiar, anomalous spin, approaching the era with a wink-nudge detachment devoid of emotion or nostalgia.The abstruse contradiction of elements translated into several extraordinary pieces, most notably a peacoat in microchip-green mohair; several nylon bombers, some with contrasting mohair collars; a white alpaca velvet jacket; and a wide range of geeky-cool mock necks. The standout was a metal-gray mackintosh in slick polyurethane, an unsettlingly skin-like material that reappeared in extra-wide raver pants, a silhouette Ervell has been toying with for several seasons.Ervell also speaks in esoteric terms. “I’ve been thinking about the future vintage, high-tech relics sitting on the edge of memory,” he said during the showroom visit. He also invoked that most cringe-y of ’90s words, cyberpunk, articulated precisely for its grating “ick factor.” Similarly, Ervell merged the corporal with the digital in the collection by inventing a plausible-sounding software company, Indegen, whose faux branding he emblazoned across wool sweaters and the back of stonewashed denim jackets.Lately there’s been unofficial talk of Ervell heading up the men’s division of a large label, after so long toiling in the indie realm and building sizable street cred. Maybe that’s what he’s up to with all this corporate make-believe—referencing speculation while neither confirming nor denying it, leaving us to wonder whether it’s soon-to-be fact or merely more fiction.
1 February 2016
At the core of this and every Patrik Ervell collection is a commitment to perversity. That's his word, which he had at the ready during a visit to his showroom in Chinatown. He also mentioned awkwardness and strangeness, and for Spring that meant a subtle reworking of his signature straight, boxy silhouette, so as to be baggier and, dare we say, street-influenced. Given Ervell's minimal visual vernacular, that was something of a shocker.But while he explored extra-wide raver pants (that first appeared on his Fall 2015 runway) and a flier-ready '70s satellite print, Ervell was hardly mining his club days. Rather, his intention was, and has always been, to inject his clothes with a sense of memory. And, just as memory fades, these pieces were not as they seemed. A standout leather peacoat wasn't leather at all, but leather-mimicking polyurethane; a deceptively simple Harrington jacket came with all sorts of secret vents; a sweatshirt had been "reconsidered," by which he meant stitched together in an unconventional way; and a weatherproof performance jacket had no shoulder seams, presumably for extra performance, or just to be different.Ervell loves a twist, to be sure, the more "unplaceable" the better. But his greatest coup de théâtre this season may have been a collaboration with Maharam, the high-end maker of industrial textiles for commercial interiors. For a fashion designer already working with permanence in mind, sidestepping the built-in obsolescence typical of ordinary fabrics was a no-brainer. Which is to say, those baggy pants and jackets aren't just durable, they're virtually indestructible.
20 July 2015
If you heard Patrik Ervell talking about Brutalist architecture and sci-fi backstage before his Fall 2015 show, then the bulky black strapped orthopedic shoes he sent down the runway may not have seemed so dissonant. Frankly, they were unappealing, but they were designed for a purpose (just not by Ervell). In Ervell's world that purpose wasn't necessarily to correct a podiatric condition, it was more about creating a foundation, a nod to the sturdy concrete buildings that inspired him, or perhaps as necessary protective footwear for an intergalactic mission.The signature silhouette here—a bomber with protruding pockets worn over a slim suit layered with a turtleneck—both minimal and unusual, looked like it could have been part of a space colony service uniform. "It's a fine line to walk between futurism and sci-fi, and that kind of nostalgia and romance," Ervell said. The set, worth noting, was comprised of steps and planters inspired by the Barbican Centre in London, lit with neon lights to create a retro-future vibe. The drop-shoulder, extra wide-leg pants, ikat prints, and flight jackets all had a late-'80s, early-'90s feel.Fabrics told much of the story. Ervell was more inspired by interiors than fashion, he said, using rubbery bonded polyurethane leather, stiff wool canvas, ballistic wool nylon, and wool silk crepe to take pieces with roots in traditional menswear and make them slightly weird—the way Brutalism and sci-fi do to reality. "It's always important to have it be a little twisted," Ervell said. "And a little wrong."
16 February 2015
Furniture and clothes aren't all that different. We buy them both based on comfort, necessity, and style. One of the main differences between the two is the amount of time you expect them to last. And there begins Patrik Ervell's Spring 2015 collection thesis.Ervell borrowed materials from interior design—polyurethane, vinyl, racing leather, and a set that featured a wall of venetian blinds—to create a collection that was minimal, structured, sporty, and classic. "It's a tricky thing," he said backstage before the show. "How do you make it convincing in menswear? There's a strangeness to this that kind of makes it like a sculpture on the body."The clothes didn't stray from what Ervell does best: sharply cut trousers with slightly oversize, subtly athletic outerwear. Coats were cut with exaggerated venting. Knit jersey pullovers were reminiscent of retro, low-tech North Face pieces. Trenches and macs in a heavy, supple polyurethane fabric with raw hems appeared laser cut. Metallic turquoise shorts and track pants added vivid, industrial color. The final look featured a nearly perfect black calfskin police jacket that Ervell remarked resembles a beautiful car. On the runway it did.Will any of it last as long as a couch or an armchair? Probably. Whether or not we actually want indestructible clothes—part of the fun is in desiring and acquiring, not just wearing—Ervell makes an important proposition. This is fashion week, after all, and as thousands of looks blur into a season, one must consider how much of what we see will endure.
8 September 2014
"Titan," the title Patrik Ervell gave his latest show, could be read two ways. Ervell said he was inspired by the new titans of industry—tech tycoons like the late Steve Jobs, whose work uniform tended toward mock turtleneck rather than collar and tie. The sleek functionality of Ervell's clothing makes a twenty-first-century work uniform.And maybe a twenty-third-century work uniform, too. There's always been something a little sci-fi about Ervell's fabrics: Here, a rubberized cotton, developed especially for him, was cut into outerwear that, with the addition of Ervell's new "corporate" insignia, looked like the leisurewear of a starship trooper. That high-performance stuff fascinates him. He was keen to emphasize the breathable membrane that lined his suits and dress pants. "It's better than silk," he enthused. And yet, at the same time, Ervell was rhapsodizing about his real silk shirts, in a heavy matte black douppioni.The formality of such pieces in this context was significant, because they were so traditional. There has always been a restrained sartorial precision in Ervell's collections, but he's increasingly looked to express it in pure performance sportswear, which has created a tension between the conventional and the radical. And that, in turn, has created some interesting clothes. This collection was no exception, with one glaring misstep. Ervell reconceptualized the fur coat, emblem of the traditional robber-baron business titan, in teddy bear fleece by Steiff, which was then airbrushed by an artist friend of the designer's. Conceptually cute, but it's just as well they were showpieces, because their dry, crunchy texture was quite off-putting.
10 February 2014
With the America's Cup being fiercely contested off San Francisco, the city where Patrik Ervell grew up, there was a certain logic to his latest collection taking sailing as its inspiration. Or maybe it was more significant that, as his show notes pointed out, sailing represents "the junction between technology and nature," long a founding principle of Ervell's work. "The uniform of the sailor is, in many ways, an ultimate image of man in union with nature," the designer claimed, a statement that perfectly nailed the curiously poetic spirit that nestles at the heart of his occasionally bone-dry aesthetic.Take, for instance, the set of Offshore, the title he gave his show tonight. It was like a pool carved from foam shaded blue-green—sea foam, geddit? Simultaneously synthetic and natural. The parade of boys—hair slicked aerodynamically upward by Holli Smith—who stepped onto this stage in their pristine whites and navies could have stepped straight off it onto the deck of an oceangoing keeler. Casual cotton outerwear was rubberized; nylon and mesh were used for suitings. Even the more formal wool pieces were bonded, not stitched, to make them seaworthy. And the signature print of the collection was a watery abstract.Ervell is a designer for whom precision is a point of pride, so it was odd to see fit issues with a couple of the unstructured blazers, but a rousing red, white, and blue finale put the seal on a collection that was possibly his most commercial to date. To paraphrase some antique scribe, they that go down to the sea in ships do business in great waters. It's great business that awaits Ervell with this stuff.
7 September 2013
For the past two seasons, Patrik Ervell has shown capsule collections of his new womenswear line alongside his men's clothes. Given that Ervell is something of a star in the menswear firmament, that stage may have been a little too big and brightly lit for the women's collections, which weren't quite fully formed. This season Ervell quietly presented the womenswear on its own. That was a canny choice. Not only did the clothes benefit from close appraisal, but for the first time they seemed ready to stand alone. The separation wasn't entire, inasmuch as Ervell reiterated the "real tree" camouflage prints and suiting jacquards that appeared in the Fall '13 menswear collection he showed over the weekend. But even as they repeated themes, and even a few key pieces, the women's looks seemed thought-out and finished in a way that was new. A few sculpturally feminine silhouettes hinted at Ervell's potential: There were the flared shirtdresses and full skirts in green leather and black PVC, and best of all there was Ervell's fantastic, volumetric suit trouser done in the jacquard. That trouser looked completely fresh—a little nineties, but sui generis.Elsewhere, the collection's strength was to be found in its details. Unlike a lot of menswear designers who turn their hand to women's clothes, Ervell hasn't sacrificed his penchant for fine-tuning; to wit, Ervell is producing his women's shirts in the same 80-year-old factory in New Jersey where he makes his men's button-downs, and he's finished them with his signature stiff club collar. For another example, take this season's parka, which was made of gray wool bonded to watertight polyurethane, and seam-taped on the inside. There was no visible stitching. Womenswear doesn't usually get such fastidious treatment, but it's certainly welcome. All in all, Ervell still seems to be building up to a real vision for his women's line, but he's getting there.
11 February 2013
"I love outerwear," said Patrik Ervell, at the end of a show that had carried this love into a whole new zone. North Face, Patagonia…these were his benchmarks, but his own version was entirely more sophisticated. Ambiguous, too. As much as Ervell insisted that his new collection was a return to sylvan roots, deep in the forest, it was also industrial in its synthetic precision. He name-checked Endor, home of the Ewoks, but thatStar Warsfantasia was filmed in a real sequoia forest near where Ervell grew up in Marin County, so sci-fi and sci-fact nudged up against each other in his new designs.There was actually something intensely ominous about the whole presentation, as though Ervell's forest was a place of refuge in a time of catastrophe. The survivalist subtext was established by a catwalk blanketed in thermal foil. It carried over into the distinctly utilitarian feel of jean jackets, track pants, a nylon duffel, and a quilted fleece sweatshirt. It's become something of an Ervell signature to take the most prosaic elements of a man's wardrobe and glamour them, most memorably with parachute silk or a shudder of latex way back when. Here, he used prints of a spookily sepulchral wood-scape: ivy twined across tree bark, flower buds at night, closed as tight as moth wings. He said they were a kind of camouflage, like the "real tree" camo that hunters wear.Of course, that signature Ervell tightrope walk between prosaic and glamorous is a calculated risk. There have been times when his collections collapse into the hopelessly mundane. But this particular outing suggested he has mastered the art of the elevating flourish. It was as subtle as the shawl collar on an overcoat, as overt as the shimmering deep green nylon jacquard of the raincoat at show's end. And maybe the music—always a dead giveaway in an Ervell show—was the most accurate indication of the collection's essence. It progressed from the abstract fuzz of a Slowdive remix to the classical bombast of Prokofiev. Confidence incarnate.
9 February 2013