Libertine is turning 20 this year, which Johnson Hartig acknowledged for fall without designing a full-blown anniversary collection. There were nods to the brand’s silk-screened vintage pieces in khaki separates with motifs taken from the fennel in the designer’s garden. Harting also collected all the different labels used over the years and attached them like asymmetric fringe over prints of the same on pieces that were more showy than functional.
More practical, at least for the Libertine loyalist, were blue everyday men’s pants emblazoned with crystal skeletons. Bling met utility in the form of a bedazzled French military jacket. “We must have sold 10,000 of these over the 20 years,” noted Hartig. Talk about a testament to good design.
Libertine has always been co-ed and there was plenty of mirroring in the collection, like mixed jacquards for men and women and his and hers trenches printed with lines from A Winter’s Night, a poem by Robert Burns. “Romanticism,” said Hartig, “is always somehow included.” As for pure romance, there was is a neat black suit with tulle streamers falling from a puffed sleeve. This season fantasy and surrealism, also Libertine standbys, were represented by a crystal festooned Wonderland (as in Alice ) jacket and a two-tone trench with trompe l’oeil pockets.
Zoom does nothing to diminish Hartig’s catholic taste and contagious enthusiasm. He can talk knowledgeably about topics ranging from English transferware to punk. Hartig’s passion for collecting spills over into sunny collections, all with a personal, “these are some of my favorite things” aspect to them. In fact, if every Libertine collection were assembled they’d form a magical Wunderkammer. Consider us enchanted.
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