Aspects of American culture have threaded through so many menswear collections this week that it felt almost magical that Idris Balogun should invite us to the American Library in Paris to see his Winnie show on the last day. The library’s been there, in close proximity to the Eiffel Tower, for a hundred and four years—an amazing specialist literary resource. It was here that the New York-based designer (who went to school in Tottenham, London and trained on Savile Row) did a deep dive on Ted Joans, jazz poet, painter, trumpeter, a member of the 1950s Beat Generation. “I always start my collections from reading something, and trying to find how that relates to today,” Balogun explained. “I began to research subcultures and started to resonate with the Beats. I really kind of felt like, if I was going to align with a subculture, it was them, because they were quite into philosophy, you know? They thought about psychology.”
Balogun—not unlike Grace Wales Bonner—is a designer whose realistic clothes spring from strong academic culture and knowledge. He infused the phenomenally cool persona of Ted Joans (who was a friend and peer of Fela Kuti, Don Cherry, James Baldwin and André Breton) into his show production, subtly personified by a mix of street cast and regular models. It may not show up in the pictures, but the quality of Balogun’s cut and materials—the fact that the sandy jean jacket and burgundy bomber are made of super fine-grained suede, for instance—is palpable close up.
It’s the kind of dressing that will win a guy admiration; spot-on choices with a context and meaning behind them, but no try-hard antics. Early on a Sunday morning, it felt good to go to the library and actually learn something new. Balogun said that when he asked the librarians for information on Ted Joans, they initially hadn’t heard of him, “but then it spiraled. It turned out that he’d been to the library multiple times, and they own signed copies of his books they didn’t know they had. Now,” he said with a smile, “they’re cataloged for anyone to access.” Talk about a poetic ending.