Boris Bidjan Saberi: A Unique Perspective.
“Clothing has to make sense with what you are and what you do. I think all the creatives around the world should take a position and reject what doesn’t represent them by working and acting in alternative ways.” — Boris Bidjan Saberi (interview with Le Paradox).
I’ve been reading a lot about Boris Bidjan Saberi lately mainly because of the amount of spare times that I have because I am currently working from home. Some said that he’s in-between Rick Owens and Carol Christian Poell, but the truth is he’s more complicated than that and I find his works pretty interesting.
Born half German and half Persian surely brought a unique western/eastern duality to his works along with his broad influences such as skate culture, military, and even hip-hop. It probably doesn’t sound special for some since everyone claims that they are also influenced by those cultures, but trust me when I said Boris is a special case of this alongside few other rare cases.
The amount of care he puts into each of his clothing is impeccable to say the least. His garments might look weird to some, but to me they look so natural, molded to be worn by actual human. Every creases of the leather look and feel organic. And by “look so human” i meant that the jacket in this case was dipped in water and worn by actual person for few hours to create the pre-bent effect in few areas, especially the elbow hence the weathering effect.
All of his runways while each have their own motif is also interconnected with each other as if it was a slow but steady evolutionary process. Think of Hayao Miyazaki and his obsession with airplanes and the way he always integrates them in each of his films. That’s what I see with Boris’ body of works. Every season refines his aesthetic and solidifies his views be it as a person or as a designer. This becomes more apparent after his S/S 2015 show. Dubbed “Symbiosism,” it was heavily inspired by the Bundeswehr as he experimented more with leather on his quest to make them feel organic and fluid. Suffice to say he did it and it sets the tone for his next projects until present day.
My personal favourite is F/W 2017 Collection “Anchorism.” Boris is no stranger to clothing for harsh climate and this one shows it tremendously with barrage of knitwear combined with fur and leather inspired by extreme ice climbing in which the designer himself undertook in order to understand the aesthetic and functional development of the collection. It’s also the second season of his ever-growing collaboration with Salomon (I have a pair of Bamba 2 from this season, which is still the best shoes in my whole collection).
He stopped doing runway after F/W 2019 and I think that’s the best for him as he can focus more on his already solidified aesthetic and improves upon it. The best example of this is his Salomon collaboration. Monochromatic at first, he started to implement object dying with crazy colours such as blood red and blue. The latest collab even have a Bamba 2 with elusive Gore-Tex for water-repelling. It’s a slow-evolving instead of radical changes every season and in my opinion it’s a good thing in this ever-changing landscape of hype-driven fashion world.
In a world obsessed with the next big new thing, refinements upon the already established thing is something rare and truly commendable. Boris rejected the notion of conformity and I think it pays off really well.
I want one his jacket and pants someday. Fingers crossed.
