Excerpt: R13. Fall 2025 - NYC

 "...Chris Leba, for his Fall 2025 collection has evoked his inner darkness, as a manifestation of that recognizable gothic aesthetic, weaved into Leba's beloved Lower East Side punk styles. Whilst incorporating the carnal of the 1970s and 1980s, Leba has very much toughened up the collection, with a more of a robust reflection of the vampiric mythos.  And this why I mentioned Ferrara's addicted vampires, more so the Master 'Peina'.  Can we master our vices?  And become a Master of the epicurean?  Much like the antinomianism practises of all the world's religions, who engage in sinful actions (usually in the form of certain forbidden foods, drinking and sex) to be purified by it, while not a slave to its seduction or addiction.  From Jewish Frankisim, Christian mystics, Islamic Sufism such as the Bektashi's, sexual alchemy of the Hindu Kaulakama, and esoteric Tibetan Buddhism.

Am I overstretching the connection of Leba's revamped, tough goth punk, to the discipline of the Left Hand Path?  Maybe.  But it is a fun correlation..."

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(A.Glass 2025)

Full review:  chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/02/r13-fall-2025-nyc.html