CMMN SWDN collection presentation A/W 2016 for LCM

“This season was about looking at clothes as an extension of your home,” explains Sif Bakir, one half of the CMMN SWDN design duo. In the two years since the label was founded, he and partner Emma Hedlund have become known for their youthful yet classically elegant menswear, and as they look to expand in the future it is good to see them looking back to the past for inspiration.

Entitled Domus – the Latin translation of “home” – the overall A/W 2016 collection is tinged with nostalgia and a warm, retro haze. Taking inspiration from their own childhood homes, Bakir and Hedlund have reinterpreted the interior designs and patterns that they hated when they young, but now recall fondly.

Using an invitingly warm colour palette comprising chiefly of umber, tan, burnt red and brown, the designers turned directly to domestic materials to evoke the idea of a once-familiar person or place. Playing with the idea of what constitutes a “luxury” fabric, the pair use both real and faux suede and leather throughout the collection, conjuring ideas of a battered old velvet armchair or the musty leather sofa that your grandparents once owned.

Despite all the retro 1970s inspiration, Domus remains grounded firmly in modernity by the sharp, contemporary shapes and technical fabrics. Jackets and tops are boxy and neatly tailored, whilst the trousers and jeans keep the silhouette long and lean with their slim legs and high-waist design.

Simple pieces layered in imaginative ways seem to be the key to the collection’s success. Take the turtlenecks worn beneath shirts, for example, or the duffle coat created from a retro blanket fabric and thrown over shirt-trouser ensemble. A fresh, impeccably tailored iteration of 1970s style – it seems that this particular trend won’t be going away for a while.

Grace Cain
Photos: Krisztian Pinter