Advice: summer looks and dark Italian (feat. Transit Uomo)

Interior & exterior agreement

Few films truly capture the atmosphere of the desert - or books, for what it's worth - the sense of loneliness and oppression , and the overwhelming beauty of the sand rolling endlessly in waves of molten gold under a blazing sun. Bertolucci's Tea in the Sahara , perhaps, or even certain scenes from The English Patient . Maupassant , in Fear , talks about the

“Large dunes south of Ouargla. This is one of the strangest countries in the world.

You know the smooth sand, the straight sand of the endless beaches of the Ocean. Well! imagine the Ocean itself turned to sand in the midst of a hurricane; imagine a silent storm of motionless waves in yellow dust. They are as high as mountains, these uneven waves, different, raised just like raging waves, but larger still, and striated like moiré.

On this furious, silent and motionless sea, the devouring southern sun pours its implacable and direct flame. It is necessary to climb these blades of golden ash, to descend again, to climb again, to climb ceaselessly, without rest and without shade. The horses rattle, sink up to their knees, and slide down the other side of the surprising hills.”

And then, conversely, there are those who speak of cities , of buildings built by the hand of man, even if they are narrow buildings, clumsily leaning over a cobbled street, which observe from their crooked roofs the passers-by hurrying along, of immense empty and disturbing hangars , or of the dead ruins of an abbey forgotten by time, of which only the eroded stones still bear witness to its past splendor.

Metropolis , or some of Tarkovsky 's works like STALKER or Nostalghia , filmed between the columns of the Tuscan abbey of Galgano, or even Burton's Batman , reflect this isolation of man facing his own creations , which nature and time adorn with a strange aura at nightfall, or when only a few lost travelers pass by.

But teeming city or lifeless desert, fantastic bridges thrown between dizzying buildings, warehouse covered in ivy or ruin buffeted by the winds, there always remains the immutable imprint of solitude - and of the immanence of nature, eternal, on humanity.

I have often wondered to what extent this feeling can be translated into a garment . To what extent is what we have on our back a reflection of ourselves , or of the environment in which we blend? Where is the line between an extension of ourselves and submission to a place, an atmosphere, an environment?

How can we mix what occupies the depths of our hearts, our ideal universe , a stylized and syncretic version of films, music and books, of influences slowly digested to form an inner whole, and the sometimes dreary reality of everyday life , the professional and social constraints that push us into an Orwellian mold where everyone must resemble their neighbor?

In my case: how can I reconcile my love for military shirts that look like they've crossed the Sahara with the melancholic wanderings of a depressive model for a romantic painting? The desert and futuristic architecture?

Blend in with the crowd

In my opinion, this boils down to two points:

• Adhere to the socio-cultural environment in which you operate and adopt its codes (for example, it is difficult to take off your tie in the banking environment),

• Add a subtle and very personal layer on top of these codes that conveys your identity , by playing on cuts, materials, accessories, etc.

This is an idea that I have already discussed at length in a previous article , and which I will only return to very superficially.

This is in line with what Coco Chanel was talking about in her famous quote about fashion going out of fashion and style remaining: dressing with a certain taste , basically, is either being perfectly eccentric (and in this case, the “inner” aspect takes precedence over the external codes - some rare circles like the art world allow it), or (like 98% of people) blending into the crowd . Avoiding being noticed other than by your elegance and sobriety . Less is more , etc.

At Pitti Uomo for example, where everyone more or less implicitly adopts the codes of Italian elegance (suit/tie/long coats and accessories), a guy dressed as a ninja straight out of the pages of a Lost & Found lookbook is… a blot. Worse, it’s in bad taste . Whereas at the exit of an art gallery he would pass without any problem.

The idea is to be discreet. But to have on your back a work of cuts and materials, an identity that instantly makes the difference.

Transit Uomo, from dark to Italian

So ideally, and because we all have limited time to devote to what is still a hobby , find a brand that represents us well (let's say 90%), mix that with pieces from other designers that are a bit more distinctive so as not to be a walking lookbook, and off we go.

That's kind of how I came across Transit a few years ago. I felt like I had reached a plateau and I was going around in circles in what I liked, mostly shared between two trends: a more minimalist "relax" one (with references like Stephan Schneider ) and a really dark one like Rick Owens and company, with no possibility of mixing the two given the abyss that separates the two universes.

That's how I got interested in Italian dark .

For about ten years now, the Milan area has been a breeding ground for young designers who share with their Japanese or Icelandic counterparts a dark aesthetic and colours (black/white/grey/earth tones), but in a purely Italian approach , of sprezzatura , relaxation, and a prominent use of “living” materials that acquire a patina over time and with their wearer. This implies that we find many more natural shades than among classic dark designers, with a range much more oriented towards grey and earth tones - cream, sand, khaki, etc. - than black/white).

Among the most interesting are Isabel Benenato , a specialist in knitwear; Poème Bohémien , the label of Nicola Coscho Berrini (unfortunately without an official website like many of them) and the brand that interests us, Transit , which comes in two lines, Uomo and Par Such for women.

Although I am probably one of their biggest French buyers, I have very little information about the brand itself, which remains unreachable and whose description on the official website is, to say the least, succinct: Italian brand, family-run, originally manufacturers for luxury brands and creators of the eponymous brand in 1994.

All I know is that they make really beautiful clothes . Lively. That exude a relaxed and elegant identity , without being sloppy. Wearable and relatively versatile, and perfectly blending that desert and city aesthetic I was talking about above. Well cut, full of subtle finishes but very simple in appearance.

So I tried with some friends of mine to do them justice and, in the process, to create a few summer looks that were a little different from the t-shirt/chinos, in an architectural utopia near Noisy-le-Grand (and which you have probably already seen in Hunger Games, where it was one of the filming locations): the Espaces d'Abraxas .

Inspiration: men's summer looks with dark influences

I would like to thank the friends who lent me a hand for this shooting, and without whose talent I would not have succeeded in conveying to you so well what I wanted:

• Julien Bravo , actor and author/composer,

• Matthieu Soudet, to whom we owe our cursed poet poses and whose work you can find on his page ,

• And his inseparable partner, Yanis Vandenberghe .

Look 1 - Vianney: the summer coat (yes, yes)

Transit Uomo Coat & Shirt
Lost & Found Pants
10sei0otto sneakers
Yemeni silver & ebony rings

You can wear a coat when it's 25°C (well, not higher), but it has to be extremely light, like this coat from Transit. Unlined, and in two weaves: a cotton jersey on the back of the sleeves and the back, and a traditional linen weave on the front. The shirt is a white model in single-weave cotton, with buttons under the collar that allow you to attach the points and give it that "square" look.

Drop crotch pants in beige canvas, with asymmetrical square thigh pocket. An interesting variation on the classic chino that instantly gives it much more character and casualness.

Look 2 - Julien: a multitude of beautiful details

Transit Uomo shirt & pants
Sruli Right Belt
Rick Owens Dunk Sneakers

The interesting thing about Transit, and also what makes them weak, is all the little details and the manic work that goes into the piece , as you can see in the close-ups of the last two pictures. Lots of mesh inserts, which gives a certain charm to most of their items, but also makes them very fragile .

The interest here is to have this more Indiana Jones side, with a variation on a classic safari jacket, and linen pants that are quite loose around the thighs. One of the specificities of the brand is this relaxation of their silhouettes, which we find in cuts that are rather wider than average.

Combined with a Sruli Recht belt made of laser-cut cowhide dipped in ash (for real, this is the designer who makes gloves with shark teeth inside), you get a relatively passe-partout look (grey/beige), but very sharp and masculine.

Note that this is a look that, thanks to fairly common cuts, also goes very well with a pair of sandals.

Look 3 - Vianney: play on length variations

Isabel Benenato Jacket
Transit Uomo shirt & pants
Baskets10sei0otto

A much more pronounced look than the previous ones, which plays on the differences in length and color between the different elements .

The jacket, a petrol blue piece in a kind of unlined oilcloth from Benenato, with the rather particular cut that many of his pieces have (natural shoulders, long and slightly flared sleeves, very long, more on the front than on the back, and the panels that make a very beautiful natural curve towards the crotch). I would honestly have a hard time mixing it with more "ordinary" pants: the drop crotch crotch and the much rougher material echo the jacket.

Cream linen shirt from Transit, with hidden button placket and special brand details such as the button placket longer than the body of the shirt, grey stitching, long and loose fit.

Look 4 - Julien: new collar shapes

Transit Men's Jacket
Transit Uomo shirt & pants
Rick Owens Dunk Sneakers

Variation on the second look, with a shirt with a particular collar . Seriously, when you tie it up completely, it looks like I just stepped out of Kitchen Nightmares or that they cast an extra Hobbit for The Lord of the Rings .

This makes it a much more assertive piece than a simple white shirt. The outfit remains deliberately simple because of this collar, which would be too flashy if mixed with more designer pieces like the previous Benenato jacket. We therefore stick to fairly discreet pants, and a fairly loose linen jacket to complete the outfit.

Look 5 - Vianney: dark colors in summer

Trucker jacket denim/linen Robert Geller
Double layered T-shirt Silent by Damir Doma
Transit Pants
Oliver Peoples Vintage Frame
10sei0otto sneakers

Transit is on the border of two universes . It is not only a "classic" brand that is a bit edgy, it is also, and deeply, a dark brand (some of their big winter pieces are inmixable with less designer brands). Real "wearable" dark summer looks are rare on the blog.

We are once again sticking to a minimum of pieces, but each with a very marked identity, and since we are on dark, mostly dark colors (one of the reasons why in my opinion it is difficult to do at the height of summer).

Same play on lengths as the look with the Benenato jacket, but instead of following the "long" movement of the body, I catch up with the silhouette with a much shorter denim jacket (to keep a harmonious number of heads as I explained in this article ).

The Silent tee would not have gone with the Benenato jacket, already for a question of colors (green/blue), and then because the rendering is more "thin" and lengthens the body much more. It is therefore important to keep a piece in this spirit , which takes up little space.

We arrive at an almost monochrome look but interesting by the contrast of materials and colors (denim jacket but linen sleeves, gray/green, t-shirt with double layers, one longer than the other, dark green, gray dropcrotch, gray/green sneakers).

Look 6 - Julien: discreet dark

Transit Shirt & T-Shirt
Transit Pants
Rick Owens Dunk Sneakers

Back to a more classic look and tones here. One of the interesting things about Transit is that even their really dark pieces (like this dropcrotch) still look pretty ordinary if you don't look twice .

The volume around the thighs is quite low compared to the same model from a different, more dark traditional designer (Rick Owens or Damir Doma for example), which gives it real versatility. This is something that we also find at Poème Bohémien: a very Italian desire to keep cuts without ostentation .

Each of the pieces here is dark, markedly dark even, but we still arrive at a rather walled look: sober cuts, gray/beige colors, including for the sneakers which are part of Rick Owens' excellent models. Impossible to do that with Geobasket .

The shirt's heavy cotton and two chest pockets stiffen the top, counterbalancing a more fluid bottom. For this reason, replacing it with, say, the linen shirt from Look 3 would be silly: too loose, too long, too fluid.

Look 7 - Vianney: dark tailoring

Ute Ploier Jacket; c hemise Transit; Lost & Found pants ; 10sei0otto sneakers.

Variation on look #1: by changing one piece, we have a totally different feeling . The first one is a pretty casual look. The jacket - one of my favorites - comes from a designer whose line died in 2013 but who was doing absolutely brilliant stuff. Here, a combination of quilted fabric, houndstooth and a lighter blue with small checks.

This is the perfect example of a superb designer piece: from afar, it is navy blue. Navy blue, white, beige, you could not get more classic than that. But it blooms like a beautiful flower as soon as you get a little closer , with absolutely superb work on the material.

This smart side forms a very interesting contrast with the sneakers, which are much more brutal. But that's one of the reasons why I like them: with simple shoes (ankle boots or derby), or even the Dunk RO used above, the look lacks a little flavor. Too smooth.

This is a look that works the opposite of #3: a short, boxy cut, over a shirt with a very slight lower curve, and a lot of volume in the thighs to compensate for the tight look of the top. Hop.

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One of the goals of this article was to show you how, with fairly distinctive pieces, you can still manage to move from one universe to another: casual, smart, dark or more military...

It's all about the twist and the context of the piece in the end . Hence the importance of buying clothes that you can assemble, reuse, and not buy on impulse (well I admit I have some too, the coat in #1 is a pure favorite, and I don't regret buying it at all ^^).

You will find Transit parts at La Piscine as well as at Elevation Store .

(For those curious, I was listening to this on repeat while writing. Put fifty minutes into it, there are always worse things than spending them on Tangerine Dream)