Images by Spela Kasal

Thanks to Filip Arickx and An Vandevorst, chalk and cardboard are no longer reserved for kindergarten arts and crafts. This season, the husband and wife design duo used the unlikely materials to bring an astute edge to their militaristic collection. In a palette of black, beige, burgundy and fuchsia, pleated jodhpurs, structured jackets and jersey skirts marched down the runway. There were hooded leather vests and a somewhat disturbing but all-around intriguing set of chin harnesses. However, it was the ribbed cardboard breastplates—fastened at the sides with metal grommets—and a series of looks covered with almost cultish chalk doodles that kept me engaged throughout Vandevorst’s show. Leggings and knobby knits were smeared with white dust. Jackets and blouses were embellished with rows of broken chalk and perhaps most amusing was the clever gift of chalk I found waiting on my seat (even though—swept up in the pre-show hustle—I sat on this little token and carried it on the back of my black dress for the remainder of the evening). Backstage, An revealed that she had hand drawn the pinstripes and abstracted chalkboard notes on her black coats, skirts and trousers. “On the one hand, we wanted a poetic feeling,” she said, “something very elegant. And on the other hand, we wanted to keep both feet on the ground. [The collection] is a combination of the daily life and the dreams.” Never again will I look at a blackboard in quite the same way.

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