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

Interior & exterior harmony

Few films truly capture the atmosphere of the desert - or books, for what it's worth -, the feeling of loneliness and oppression , and the overwhelming beauty of sand rolling endlessly into waves of molten gold. under a blazing sun. A tea in the Sahara , by Bertolucci, perhaps, even certain scenes from The English Patient . Maupassant , in La Peur , speaks of

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

You know the plain sand, the straight sand of the endless beaches of the Ocean. Well ! imagine the Ocean itself becoming sand in the middle of a hurricane; imagine a silent storm of still waves made of yellow dust. They are high like mountains, these uneven waves, different, raised quite like raging waves, but larger still, and streaked like moire.

On this furious sea, silent and without movement, the devouring southern sun pours its implacable and direct flame. We must climb these blades of golden ash, go back down, climb again, climb incessantly, without rest and without shadow. The horses groan, 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 made by the hand of man, even if they are narrow buildings, awkwardly leaning over a cobbled alley, who observe from their lopsided roofs, passers-by hurrying along, huge empty and disturbing hangars , or the dead ruins of an abbey forgotten by time, of which only the eroded stones still bear witness to the past splendor.

Metropolis , or certain works by Tarkovsky like STALKER or Nostalghia , shot between the columns of the Tuscan abbey of Galgano, or even Burton's Batman , reflect this isolation of man in the face of his own creations , that nature and time parent of a strange aura at nightfall, or when only a few lost travelers pass there.

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

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

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

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

To blend in

In my opinion, it 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 remove your tie in the banking environment),

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

This is an idea that I have already talked about at length in a previous article , and to which I will only come back very superficially.

This goes back to what Coco Chanel talked about in her famous quote about fashion, which goes out of fashion, and style, which remains: dressing with a certain taste , basically, is either being perfectly eccentric (and in this case , the “inner” aspect takes precedence over external codes - certain rare environments such as the art world allow it), or (like 98% of people) blending into the crowd . Avoid being noticed other than through its 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 like a ninja from the pages of a Lost & Found lookbook, does … stain. Worse, it's in bad taste . Whereas when leaving 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 which instantly makes the difference.

Transit Uomo, from dark to Italian

So ideally, and because we all have a limited amount of time to devote to what remains a hobby , find a brand that represents us well (let's say 90%), mix that with pieces from other creators a bit. more marked so as not to be a walking lookbook, and go through the hassle.

That’s kind of how I came across Transit a few years ago. I had the impression of having reached a plateau and I was going around in circles in what I loved, shared mainly between two trends: a more minimalist “relaxed” one (with references like Stephan Schneider ) and a really dark one à la Rick Owens and company, without any possibility of mixing the two given the abyss that separates the two universes.

That's how I started to get interested in dark Italian .

For around ten years, the surroundings of Milan have been a breeding ground for young designers who have in common with their Japanese or Icelandic counterparts a dark aesthetic and colors (black/white/gray/earth tones), but in an approach purely Italian , of sprezzatura , relaxation, and a prominent use of “living” materials which acquire a patina with time and their wearer. This means that we find many more natural shades than among classic dark designers, with a range much more focused on gray and earth tones - cream, sand, khaki, etc. - only black/white).

Among the most interesting, we find Isabel Benenato , specialist in knitting; Poème Bohémien , Nicola Coscho Berrini's label (unfortunately without an official website like many of them) and the brand that interests us, Transit , which is available in two lines, Uomo and Par Such for women.

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

All I really know is that they make really beautiful clothes . Living. Which exude a relaxed and elegant identity , without being neglected. Portable and relatively versatile, and perfectly blending that aesthetic of the desert and the city that I spoke about above. Well cut, full of subtle finishes but very simple in appearance.

So I tried with friends of mine to do them justice and, in the process, to make some summer looks a little different from the t-shirt/chinos, in an architectural utopia near Noisy-le-Grand (and that you have undoubtedly already seen in The Hunger Games (which was one of the filming locations): the Spaces of Abraxas .

Inspiration: men's summer looks with dark influences

I would like to thank the friends who helped me with this shoot, and without whose talent I would not have succeeded in conveying to you what I wanted as well:

• Julien Bravo , actor and author/composer,

• Matthieu Soudet, to whom we owe our poses of cursed poets 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 put on a coat when it's 25°C (well, not above), but it must 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 simple weave cotton, with buttons under the collar which allow you to attach the ends and give it that "square" look.

Dropcrotch pants in beige canvas, with asymmetrical square thigh pocket. An interesting cut variation on the classic chino which instantly gives it much more character and relaxation.

Look 2 - Julien: a multitude of beautiful details

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

The interesting thing about Transit, and what also makes it weak, are all the little details and the manic work put into the piece , as you can see in the close-ups of the last two photos. 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 brand's specificities is this relaxation of their silhouettes, which we find in cuts that are rather wider than average.

Combined with a Sruli Recht belt in laser-cut cowhide dipped in ash (for real, it's the designer who makes gloves with shark teeth inside), you get a relatively old-fashioned look . -all over (grey/beige), but very sharp and masculine.

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

Look 3 - Vianney: playing with length variations

Isabel Benenato jacket
Transit Uomo shirt & pants
Sneakers10sei0otto

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). the back, and the sides which make a very beautiful natural curve towards the crotch). I would honestly have a hard time mixing it with more “ordinary” pants: the dropcrotch crotch and the much rougher material echo the jacket.

Cream linen shirt from Transit, with hidden buttonhole and special brand details such as the buttonhole longer than the body of the shirt, gray stitching, long and loose cut.

Look 4 - Julien: new collar shapes

Uomo Transit Jacket
Transit Uomo shirt & pants
Rick Owens Dunk Sneakers

Variation on the second look, with a shirt with a special collar . Seriously, when you strap it on completely, it looks like I came out of Nightmare in the Kitchen or that we cast an extra Hobbit for The Lord of the Rings .

This makes it a much more statement piece than a simple white shirt. The outfit remains deliberately simple because of this collar, which would be too showy 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's not only a slightly edgy "classic" brand, it's also, and profoundly, a dark brand (some of their big winter pieces can't be mixed with less designer brands). Real “wearable” dark summer looks are rare on the blog.

Once again we remain on a minimum of pieces, but each with a very marked identity, and since we are on dark, mainly 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 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, firstly for a question of colors (green/blue), and then because the result is “finer” and elongates the body much more. It is therefore important to keep a room with this in mind , which takes up little space.

We arrive at an almost monochromic 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, green dark, gray dropcrotch, gray/green sneakers).

Look 6 - Julien: discreet dark

Transit shirt & t-shirt
Transit pants
Rick Owens Dunk Sneakers

Back here to a more classic look and tones. One of the interesting things about Transit is that even their truly 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 designer, more dark traditional (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, even marked dark, but we still achieve a fairly walled look: sober cuts, gray/beige colors, including for the sneakers which are among Rick Owens' excellent models. Impossible to do that with Geobasket .

The heavy cotton of the shirt and the 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 stupid: 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 a piece, you have a totally different feeling . The first is a fairly casual look. The jacket - one of my favorites - comes from a designer whose line has been dead since 2013 but who was making absolutely brilliant stuff. Here, a combination of quilted fabric, houndstooth and a lighter blue with small checks.

This is the epitome of a superb designer piece: from a distance, it is navy blue. Navy blue, white, beige, more classic you die. 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 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, on a shirt with a very shallow lower curve, and quite a bit of volume in the thighs to compensate for the skimpy appearance of the top. Hop.

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

It's all a question of twist and context of the piece at the bottom . Hence the importance of buying clothes that you can assemble, reuse, and not fall in love with (well I admit I have some too, #1's coat 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 who are curious, I listened to this on repeat while writing. Put in fifty minutes, there are always worse things than spending them on Tangerine Dream)