Michel Berandi Spring 2010

When it comes to the designs of Michel Berandi, leather, which is thought to be straight-​​forward devel­ops a dis­tinc­tive com­plex­ity. It might live up to its rebel­lious nature, but it also has so much more to offer. See­ing beyond its typ­i­cal asso­ci­a­tion with immense atti­tude, Berandi sees a softer side that makes leather more approach­able. From Berandi’s use of brown and gray against a pre­dom­i­nant black palette to thin body con­scious lay­er­ing pieces that main­tain a con­ti­nous flow, light-​​weight leather is mar­ried to edgy suit­ing for a mod­ern take on sophis­ti­ca­tion. Oddly enough, Berandi arrived at this alter­na­tive by explor­ing intense out­lets. The spring col­lec­tion took shape in the midst of chaos. While search­ing for a start­ing point, Berandi recalled “lis­ten­ing to a lot of Nor­we­gian Black Metal and Lou Reed’s noise album, Metal Music Machine.” Inspired by the “fan­tas­tic the­atri­cal aspect of that unusual music scene,” Berandi decided to adapt and trans­form the scene’s hard­core attrib­utes into a col­lec­tion that demon­strates vul­ner­a­bil­ity. The result is a col­lec­tion with spirit – it’s exte­rior may appear strong and con­fronta­tional, but upon closer inspec­tion, you notice its fragility.

Pic­tures cour­tesy of Michel Berandi