With bonded constructions and hand-crafted prints, Soulland's bell-trimmed autumn/winter 2023 collection rings true with Silas Adler's considered brand of experimentation
Soulland’s ‘Moon Wizard’ autumn/winter 2023 collection is a tapestry of unexpected elements and details, many of which creative director Silas Adler uncovered in Florence – he fell in love with the city during preparations for last year’s Pitti show.
Kicking off with a palette-cleanser of head-to-toe creamy white looks, the 28 piece collection moves into rich paisleys and crimson touches – sourced from fabric houses in the Italian city – then to intricate lattice work cut-outs, before glimpses of a monochrome renaissance print appear. Adler tells me the print was created through a very analogue process of cutting up a beautiful painting, creating a collage, and then “crunching through a Xerox many, many times.”
Marking the second instalment of the brand’s Brain House Inhabitants trilogy, the collection continues the spotlight on suiting from spring/summer 2023, this time integrating a focus on bonded fabrics. Echoing the Xerox process, Adler has mixed and matched with Florentine deadstock textiles to essentially make new fabrics. Take, for instance, the red lines tracing throughout some garments – it’s velvet peeking through after being bonded with deadstock leather. Trimming the edges of other garments are subtle golden bells. “Clothing is visual, it has texture and sometimes a strong scent like leather, but it’s quite nice to add the element of sound into clothing,” he says. The bells were first introduced decorating a suit last season, but Adler only decided to dive deeper into the detail after wearing them to his business partner Jacob Kampp Berliner's wedding, as toastmaster - fittingly.
While Latimmier’s Ervin Latimer openly discussed his battles to overcome burnout this season, Adler’s reasoning for stepping away from the Copenhagen circuit was more about focus. “I feel like I’ve had more freedom to get the word out and describe what I want to do with the collection than when I had to focus on doing the show,” he explains. “It’s not to say that I’m done with doing shows, because I love doing shows, but sometimes to really get your narrative out there, you need to work on different platforms and different ways.”
See the full collection below:
Soulland - AW23
