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{ FALL FASHION }
If we are to accept that fashion
designers are fortune tellers —
working not with tarot cards or
crystal balls but with sneakers and
sweaters — then this fall many
were looking back two decades to
see what lies ahead. More specif-
ically, to 1999, the year the sci-fi film
“The Matrix” was released.
It was there in Demna
Gvasalia’s sinister fall collection
for Balenciaga, shown on the out-
skirts of Paris in a space that
smelled of freshly poured asphalt
and was lit in blood red. The de-
signer showed broad-shouldered
trenches of slick black leather
paired with alien-like sunglasses,
an otherworldly and futuristic
look. Hedi Slimane’s collection for
Celine was all razor-edged leather
outerwear and dark shades, while
Daniel Lee’s debut at Bottega
Veneta offered sleek and aggres-
sive motocross pants topped with
architectural jackets. The popular
brand Alyx, from Matthew Wil-
liams, continued to traffic heavily
in black S&M leathers, oversize
outerwear and tactical accessories
such as pocketed chest rigs and
military belts.
Many of these designs could
easily pass as costumes from the
now-classic movie, which were de-
signed by Kym Barrett. Directed
by Lilly and Lana Wachowski, as
the two are now known, and star-
ring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne
Moss and Laurence Fishburne, it’s
the story of a future in which mach-
ines harvest energy from a crop of
humans who are distracted by
simulated reality (the titular Ma-
trix). Reeves, as a computer hacker
named Neo, ventures into the Ma-
trix, dons a sexy, leather-clad, sun-
glass-sporting avatar, and starts
raging against the machines.
This year marks the film’s 20th
anniversary, and it will be return-
ing to select theaters in the fall; a
fourth installment with the origi-
nal cast and creatives was an-
nounced last month. Reeves, an A-
lister who mostly makes himself
scarce, is fresh off a string of high-
profile projects (the third install-
ment of his “John Wick” series, the
Netflix film “Always Be My Maybe”
and Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story 4”)
and, as a result, has been the sub-
ject of fawning profiles, laudatory
think pieces, social media swoon-
ing and puppy videos. In April,
Saint Laurent announced him as
the star of its latest campaign.
There are definite reasons that
the film, and its sexy and strangevision of the future, feels so cannily
relevant today. Reasons that in-
volve our collective anxiety about
social media and the existential
war that is silently unfolding be-
tween tech companies and the gen-
eral public.
“The movie foreshadowed a big-
ger sense of doom,” says Barrett,
the costume designer who created
the looks for “The Matrix,” which
were, she says, inspired by Bud-
dhist monks’ robes and ecclesiasti-
cal vestments. “With our present
political climate and people’s lack
of humanity, there’s really a huge
dark cloud on the horizon. Subcon-
sciously that mood is probably be-
ing reflected on the catwalk.”
As we spend more time atta-
ched to our smartphones, the idea
that technology is not freeing us
but enslaving us — the core philos-
ophy of “The Matrix” — is increas-
ingly germane. To draw on the aes-
thetics of the film is a way for de-
signers to engage with the increas-
ingly complex feelings consumers
have about technology’s pervasive
effect on culture and society.
“There are films like ‘The Ma-
trix’ that were simply ahead of
their time,” says Deborah Nadool-
man Landis, a costume designer,
fashion historian, professor and
founding director of the David C.Copley Center for the Study of Cos-
tume Design at UCLA. (When I
telephoned her, she answered by
asking, “Are you calling me be-
cause Balenciaga’s fall collection
could have been designed by
Kym?”) Today, the movie’s theme
of the perils of living “inside” the in-
ternet seem less like sci-fi and more
like a cautionary tale. “The Wa-
chowskis anticipated, or were pre-
scient about, the web to come,”
Landis adds.
Tapping “The Matrix,” with its
distinctive visual language, is an
easy way to conjure the feeling of
technology-induced cultural ruin,
which could be seen as a defining
atmosphere of our times. “Frankly,
distrust is a major macro trend
we’ve been following for quite some
time, so it doesn’t surprise me that
movies like ‘The Matrix’ are inspir-
ing a slew of collections,” says
Michael Fisher, vice president and
creative director at Fashion
Snoops, a trend forecasting
agency. “What’s real and what’s not
is something we grapple with every
single day as of late.”
“I think right now we’re in such
an uncertain time,” says Nico
Amarca, the special projects ed-
itor, fashion, at Hearst Magazines,
who indulges in the look himself.
“Nostalgic about things that hap-
pened but also uncertain of where
things are going. This look is an
amalgamation of all of that, in a
way,” he says. “And it looks cool. It’s
a very Instagrammable look.”
It helps that, unlike many films
set in the future, “The Matrix” has
aged surprisingly well. “What I like
about its influence in contempo-
rary fashion is this weird subver-
sion of the corporate uniform,”
Amarca says. “Taking things like
the trench coat or those Ray-Ban
glasses your dad would wear and
making it something hard-looking
and futuristic and weird. It’s al-
most a sort of cosplay.”
Landis agrees. “Those are our
heroes, those are our current my-
thology,” she says. “That’s what we
talk about when we talk about ‘The
Handmaid’s Tale’ or ‘Game of
Thrones’ — they’re the closest
thing we have to mythology, togods and goddesses. We want to
adapt and feel strong and positive,
and the closest and cheapest thing
we have to do is wear their clothes.”
Of course, not every guy will
want to dress like a sadomaso-
chistic superhero this fall. Luckily,
a menswear mainstay is poised for
a serious comeback (some may be
surprised to hear it even left). The
suit, which has fallen out of favor in
recent years thanks to the explo-
sive rise of streetwear, is in the
midst of a revival. However, this
isn’t your father’s fastidious tailor-
ing or the corporate uniform of
yore. In their fall runway collec-
tions, designers borrowed the laid-
back flavor of streetwear and in-
jected it into the once-formal cate-
gory, yielding wonderful results.
At the French brand AMI, de-
signer Alexandre Mattiussi offered
up a slightly oversized camel suit —
with flowing trousers and worn
with a white T-shirt and sneakers
— that looks almost like a ’90s-era
tracksuit. Pierre Maheo of Officine
Générale showed unstructured,
louche tailoring in rich colors and
lush fabrics, many with pleated, ta-
pered trousers that look especially
appealing and modern, like a clas-
sic suit minus the buttoned-up feel.
Kim Jones at Dior Men rendered
his with satin sashes, and Virgil
Abloh at Louis Vuitton presented
generously cut versions in gray.
Dries Van Noten showed a terrific
collection of classic tailoring em-
blazoned with tie-dye prints.
If you need proof that the suit
really is having a moment, look to
Supreme, the vanguard streetwear
brand that’s still seen as the move-
ment’s north star. Known for its
hooded sweatshirts, baggy pants,
graphic tees and skateboarding ac-
cessories, in recent seasons the la-
bel slyly added a suit or two to its
seasonal collections, which are re-
leased weekly in the “drop” system.
This fall, Supreme is offering a
throwback sharkskin suit with
notch lapels in muddy brown and
blue. The popular streetwear web-
site Highsnobiety gave its blessing,
saying, “There’s also a sick two-
piece suit for anyone feeling like
boasting a fancier flex this winter.”Stepping into the Matrix
The Neo look overtakes the menswear scene as designers draw sci-fi inspiration and suits stage a return
ShutterstockVictor BoykoWireImageBALENCIAGA’Ssleek black leather trench, left, is part of the
darkly futuristic look that many designers on the men’s fall run-
ways are tapping into. Dries Van Noten’s classic tailoring suf-
fuses a tie-dye suit, top, and a more traditional look, above right.
Louis Vuitton adds a generous cut to its fall suit, above left.Peter WhiteGetty ImagesBy Max BerlingerPeter WhiteGetty Images