OAMC. Fall 2021

(Images:  OAMC)

OAMC, since beginning in 2014, has been trying to settle itself into the more finer tailored styles within its street styled looks.  Creative director Luke Meier, who was once the head designer for the iconic and hyped labeled street brand Supreme came up with his own idea for a fashion label in 2013, originally titling it Over All Master Cloth, changing the name to the shorter OAMC, he has been steadily building the brand to where it is today.   Exclusive only as a men's wear label, Meier has proven to be a gifted and original designer, who, from an aesthetically point of view was able to adjust to the fact that the fashion industry has changed almost over night in light of the pandemic that has swept the world.  As governments globally have made a meal in their responses to the pandemic, blindsided by an odd and dangerous economic belief that a stock market is a precursor for an all clear.  Read terribly in 2020, when they, Europe and America, opened too fast too soon, now with vaccinations going at breakneck speed, the whole thing looks so fragile.   Yet, it is reassuring to see creatives, like Meier and others trying to adapt to the new world.   It wont be the same that we remember it as, viral pandemics throughout history are notorious game changers.   

lnterestingly, Meier has looked at history or at least the ghosts of the past in shaping his Fall 2021 collection.   I have always been fascinated with ghosts as a metaphor, particularly the Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist esoteric beliefs of the Hungry Ghosts, wraith like beings that are doomed to suffer, unsatisfied with their desires of past Karma, they are wounded entities that seek fulfillment without ever being able to attain it.  In its anaolgy, the past and the wounds that it carries, should be gently put to rest, but as a society we have a tendency to open up these wounds again and again, disturbing the hungry ghosts.   Hence a haunted society succumbed by its fears of insignificance, caught between a future and suffering of the past.  

Meier in creating ghostly imprints has utilized a process called Cyanotype, an archaic practice of duplicating images into a washed out Cyan effect, utilizing UV rays to created what is still known as blueprints.  The technique dates back to the 1800s, yet its resonation, when used within a contemporary setting evokes an appealing aesthetic.  To which Meier has echoed the past in developing styles for his Fall 2021 lookbook.  

Beautifully cut and fitted clothes, delivering his latest offering from OAMC as a well balanced array between the modernist and avant-garde trends emerging into 2021, this is Meier's “dystopia”, as promoted by the designer and also its “hope”, in reflection of the tumultuous time that we are all enduring; a viral pandemic, social unrest, economic fragility and of course climate change, that has been put to the side – all the while governments are racing to get their economies back on line.  The oil price is beginning to climb and so will our carbon footprint.  The global pandemic could have been an event to settle these 'hungry ghosts', instead it appears that are more disturbed than ever before. 

A fantastic and original ensemble, with some of the sharpest tailoring that l've seen so far for a Fall 2021 collection.