Collections designed specifically for modern traveling are almost as rare as hassle-free airport check-ins. Christopher Raeburn did a terrific job with his unisex spring collection, done in collaboration with fast-growing German leather goods brand MCM, owned by South Korea’s Sungjoo Group 2005.
Sungjoo’s mighty budgets were evident in the production values — and the front row — as top international editors and model sensation Lucky Blue were flown in to watch models ratchet around a circular plinth as a storm of static was projected on a scrim encasing them.
The shapes were familiar — bombers, parkas, ponchos, shorts and leggings — and enlivened with busy, dazzled camouflage patterns or dense quilting. Raeburn excels at making clothes functional and current, yet with the same restraint as the techno duo Raime, whose minimal, droning beats accompanied the display.
For the bags, the designer concocted a modular system allowing additional pouches to be tacked onto weekend totes or backpacks. Invisible in the display were the technical and sustainable materials, including a dirt-repelling and UV-blocking stretch fabric and a nylon by Spanish firm Ecoalf made from recycled bottles.