The Dirty Magazine That Learned to Sew

Richardson built its reputation on explicit photographs. The magazine—glossy, committed to transgression as an aesthetic position—occupied territory nobody quite knew how to categorize: too pornographic for the art crowd, too serious for the porn crowd. Shot with real intent, it treated the naked body as subject matter rather than product. So when they pivoted to selling clothes a few years back, it made a certain sense. The same eye that composed those images turned to fabric and silhouette.

Their spring/summer 2018 collection is called Origami, a Japan-inflected collaboration with Italian heritage sportswear brand Ellesse. Japan has been fashion’s favorite mirror for decades—every designer eventually makes the Tokyo pilgrimage, shoots a lookbook under cherry blossoms, and comes back changed or at least better-dressed. Richardson did the same. The lookbook is exactly that: petals, soft light, hoodies that look serene and will almost certainly be drenched the moment you wear them somewhere like Osaka in August.

What I find genuinely interesting is the product naming: Rockafella Popper Pants, Jefferson Shorts, a bucket hat called Vermont. New York names inside a Japan-inflected collection, stitched together with Ellesse’s Italian heritage. That layering—NYC energy, Japanese aesthetic, Italian craft sensibility—is either an identity crisis or the most honest description of how fashion actually moves now. Probably both, and that’s fine.

The pieces look good. I’d wear the hoodie. I’m not sure I’d think about origami while doing it, but that’s probably beside the point.