Patience, Process, and the Everyday: Kartik Research & Vowels AW26
Two presentations that slowed things down in the best way: Kartik Research and Vowels. One grounded in craft and heritage, the other built on research, routine, and the poetry of the everyday.
Before We Start
If you’re new here, you can catch up on some recent work:
I Lost My Luggage Going to Men’s Fashion Week: Reporting from Paris — moving between showrooms, missed luggage, and conversations around slower fashion, locality, and material honesty.
I Think, Therefore I Tastemake: My thoughts on tastemaking, influence, and intention in modern content — exploring slow style, fatigue, and what’s to come
New Year, New (Kinda the Same) Me: A year-end reflection on growth, fear, and staying honest — along with the designers and pieces that caught my eye recently
Basic? (How Japanese brands get labelled “boring” or “expensive,” and the disconnect between passion, content, and algorithm-driven taste)
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Day 2 Introduction
After a week of trying on nice clothes, meeting incredible people, and returning home to a cute, quaint little studio in Chinatown, it feels like reality came crashing back — hard.
I don’t think anyone had writing from a 3-star hotel due to a flight cancellation on their Duchump Fashion Week Bingo Card. It feels like I’ve lived a hundred lives over the span of one week, but despite the various blockers and issues that cropped up, we move forward — even if it means sleeping on top of my bedsheets tonight because I do not trust this hotel whatsoever. Oh, and I caught the flu.
There’s a hole in the ceiling of my shower. If that helps paint a clearer picture.
Back to fashion week. It’s always a pleasure seeing how many characters are out, patiently waiting for Phil Oh to photograph them for Vogue’s Street Style series. This was most evident during the Kartik Research presentation: half the room showed up to genuinely engage with the collection — press, designers, people with intent — while the other half were fully Demna-era Balenciaga’d out in order to, in my opinion, get flicked up for the likes.
That’s cool, and I could very well be wrong. What irks me most, though, is the ego behind the vanity fits (though we’re all vain in this industry, so joke’s on me). Unfortunately, to exist in this environment, you have to endure it — even if that means making small talk with someone who has zero interest in who you are, only what you are. It happened a few times, and while it may be part of growing in this industry, it starts to feel icky after a while — speaking to a facade rather than a real person.
Regardless, it’s genuinely been a pleasant experience being here, especially considering it’s only been a year and a half since I started writing this newsletter. I never expected to be attending shows like Kartik and ssstein, or receiving invitations to brands like Kiko Kostadinov, Post Archive Faction, and J.L.A.L.
My initial instinct with some of the latter was to skip them, or attend without diving too deeply here — they’re not always directly aligned with the brands we typically cover. But when it comes to offering coverage, I believe it’s important to offer range and expand our palette. Sticking to one lane dulls perspective. Sometimes you need to see a Kiko to better understand a Toward(s) (fka Outbreak Lab), for example.
All of this is to say, I will be writing honestly about each brand. As I said to Drew Joiner after bumping into him on the street — hungry, manic, and desperately craving a plate of steak au poivre — we need more critique and constructive criticism in fashion. Without it, menswear (and fashion at large) cannot grow or evolve.
Fashion journalism has grown incredibly soft, largely due to ad revenue and the fear of losing a seat at x, y, or z’s runway show. Major publications hand out gold stars like candy. You did great! Terrific collection! Even if it’s for something as incredibly underwhelming and dull as Hanover by Chris Black — awful.
This is why I don’t understand the constant disrespect Substack receives. It’s created space for honest writers to speak freely. I’m grateful to be attending presentations and showrooms this January, exchanging pleasantries with agencies and the people behind the scenes — but that won’t stop me from saying when something, or someone, misses.
We’re still small. We don’t have much to lose. And even if we did, I’d rather offer a genuine take than fall in line with the herd. Even if that means losing the access we’re slowly building up.
We need more critique — now more than ever.
With that in mind, I’ve split my Day 2 coverage into two parts. This post focuses solely on presentations, while Sunday’s post covers the Impossible Objects showroom.
Here was our itinerary:
Day 2 — Thursday, January 22nd
10:30-11:00AM — Heugn
Rescheduled after being told my luggage would arrive around this time. Again — as Maury would say, the lie detector determined that was a lie. We’re working out an interview soon.
12:00-12:15 — Jeong Li*
12:15-12:30 — Neithers*
12:30-12:45 — meanswhile*
12:45-1:00PM — Earth Studies*
2:00-2:30PM — Kartik Research (Presentation)
5:00-7:00PM — Vowels (Presentation)
*Impossible Objects showroom
Kartik Research — Presentation
First, I’d like to share how special a moment this was. While it may not seem like much to others, I feel incredibly lucky to have been invited to see Kartik Research this season. Visiting showrooms is a great way to connect with a designer and understand garments on an individual level — but presentations like this allow you to fully immerse yourself in the designer’s vision.