CITY Issue 58 - (Page 50) CITY LIFE / IN ROGUE BY ELYSSA DIMANT THE MAN FROM MAJORCA Continuing in his quest to create eco-friendly fashion, Miguel Adrover partners with Hess Natur in his greenest collection yet T he fi rst time I saw him, he was standing amidst the massive weathe ed stones of the Temple of Dendu at The Met opolitan Museum of t. His long, da k hai was clipped into a chic hat, and a djellabah-inspi ed obe f om his ecent unway collection fell loosely ove his tall, lanky f ame. He looked bohemian and playful, appa ently tickled by the spectacle of the fashion cognoscenti all gathe ed togethe in one place. But with one hand bobbling a d ink and the othe gesticulating wildly as he ambled to eve yone who app oached him, Miguel d ove looked mo e than anything else like a visiona y. d ove made a splash in when he opened his Ho n boutique on Manhattan’s Lowe East Side, which offe ed a cleve selection of alte na-ga ments that sometimes included items f om longtime buddy lexande Mc ueen. Successful as he was as a downtown etaile , d ove debuted his Midtown collection in the fall of , immediately demonst ating the eno mity of his design talent. The clothes fluidly mixed high and low, this status symbol and that taboo, lite ally fusing the Uptown and Downtown scenes that have always bookended New o k. Cleve as this concept was fo the designe ’s ent ée, it was also a p ophetic analogy fo the way he has blu ed global lines between exclusivity and mass ma ket. s d ove explains, “Rich class, poo class, and at the end of the day, all walking on the same st eet.” In the seasons following, d ove econfi gu ed the matt ess ticking of neighbo uentin C isp, the eby inse ting a dialogue of dandyism into menswea that had been skating below the su face fo some time. Designs like a batte ed “I [hea t] N ” T-shi t d ess and an ensemble of fi lthy conducto ’s-st ipe denim ep inted with the Coca-Cola logo helped eactivate the c itical dialogue spa ked by ecycled “message” fashions. The designe ’s many pilg images to Egypt spawned collections ife with tu bans and chado s, Middle Easte n latticewo k, and va ious pilla s of Islamic d ess. The Septembe p esentation that yea came just days befo e the Twin Towe s c umbled, causing the enti e Muslim wo ld to fall unde suspicion. Even in his last collection befo e exiting the New o k shows in , d ove offe ed imp essive ca icatu es of the Old me ican West, and in doing so effo tlessly fo ecast the etu n of the cowboy boot. Unde pinning all of these visiona y tu ns was d ove ’s Midtown collection. Those clothes embodied the zeitgeist of millennial fashion while di ecting the indust y to e-examine its own wastefulness. It also led fashion’s ma ch against disposability, and this fall d ove is emphasizing the c edo of sustainability once again. He has c eated a capsule collection fo the Ge man mailo de company Hess Natu , sta ted in by envi onmentalist Heinz Hess, as WITH THIS NEW COLLECTION, ADROVER HAS MANAGED TO INFUSE ALL OF HN'S ECOBRILLIANCE WITH A HEALTHY DOSE OF FASHION-FORWARD KNOW-HOW. 50 CITY TY ///// / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / a solution to t aditional fashion’s disast ous ecological policies. Founde of the fi st o ganic cotton fa ming p ojects in Pe u, Senegal, Tu key, and Bu kina Faso, and a fo ce behind the Clean Clothes Campaign and the Fai Wea Foundation, Hess Natu specializes in cotton, wool, silk, and leathe fab ics whose p oduction outlaws any pesticides, fe tilize s, o toxic pollutants. Unlike the small di ectional steps of many “g een-f iendly” fashion b ands, HN is g een th ough-and-th ough, f om p e-woven fibe to logo tag. It looks to set the cu ve fo ou envi onmentally conscious e a. Though d ove ’s line fo HN launched in pa t in July, it will see full dist ibution this month. With this new collection, d ove has managed to infuse all of HN’s eco-b illiance with a healthy dose of fashion-fo wa d know-how. Taking cues f om the aw cloths and fluid const uctions of va ious Japanese a tists, d ove does not skip out on the cu ent fashion climate: a modified dhoti pant demonst ates that he’s in sync with fall t ends. s fashion’s u ge to inco po ate envi onmentalism into the seasonal otation g ows, a population of skeptics wonde s whethe fashion, as a vehicle fo change, can eally be sustainable. nd even mo e cu iously, many wonde if g een fashion equals less passion. If Hess Natu ’s newest hi e has anything to say about it, Ecofashion is ou futu e. nd if Miguel d ove thinks so, I’m convinced, too. ILLUSTRATION BY ADAM ELLIS
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