Ignore the mandals, it’s all about the knits…except that one black rag with the asymmetrical zipper that’s too heavy for the fiber that’s trying to support it. Burberry, fuck yeah. See the show at Coûte: Pt 1, Pt 2.

Styled by Dazed’s fashion director Robbie Spencer and photographed by Richard Burbridge, this editorial is a virtual keyboard mash of button-pushing in terms of themes, styling and all-out Weimar weirdness. Fashionisto (view the whole ball of wax there) summed it up simply as “disturbing,” but I’m not sure that it is, given that Spencer’s savvy styling is a direct reference to German artist Otto Dix, who is a longtime fave of the ladies of Yarneteria.

The lead editorial photo features JW Anderson’s clever mesh-covered aran, one of a suite of smart sweaters in the Irish designer’s AW10 collection, which delivers punk militaria and unexpected textures from a distinctly Celtic perspective. View the haunting collection presentation at the link above.

The stylistic decision to use Úna Burke’s lushly fetishistic leather body cast is another surprise. Burke’s own explanation of her collection gets to the heart of the matter:

This is a conceptual collection of wearable art pieces, depicting a series of eight human gestures associated with the cause, the physical and psychological effect and the healing stages of human trauma. Sculptural forms are created around the shape of the contorted female body. A number of pieces are reminiscent of prosthetics and medical braces. This signifies the potential for healing within the boundaries of something which inhibits the body.

The call and response of the Dazed editorial with Otto Dix’s Der Krieg (1924) and later portraits of grotesquely disfigured veterans in Weimar slums and society is palpable. Dix’s etchings, aquatints and paintings offer an unflinching view at the abject horror of WWI and the underbelly of Berlin nightlife before the Third Reich. Paar im Café (Café Couple, 1921) is one of my favorites that shows the juxtoposition of WWI’s primitive medical legacy with the artistic fervor and social pageantry of the Weimar Republic. This watercolor as well as all of Der Krieg and many portraits are on exhibit at the Neue Galerie through August 30, and we recommend that you visit, providing geographical feasibility.

And of course, we can’t close this without a musical reference. Here’s Ultravox’s “Vienna,” which features all of the above imagery, plus Midge Ure:

It’s a little atypical to look at editorials and realise that a shoot has captured the vision that you have for your own line, but that’s a little (a lot?) of what happened when I saw this editorial styled by John Tan and shot by Ryan Michael Kelly for Sportwear International. That it features Red’s Brad Bowers is doubly neat, because he’s the corporate fantasy model for this year’s designs. The hair. Seriously. See the whole ball of wax at Fashionisto.

This has absolutely nothing to do with knitting. As if we need any excuse to post barely-safe-for-work photos of Jonathan Kroppmann. (Read more about the Lipstick Portraits project and see even more of Mr. Kroppmann at Fashionisto.) If young Mr. Kroppmann looks familiar, it’s probably because you also gawked at Juicy Couture’s Dirty English campaign sometime during 2008.  I always feel like it’s pretty base to have “favorite” models, but next to Tony Ward, this kid is it. However, it would be nice if someone would let him wear some clothes occasionally.

This week on Dazed Digital, there’s a brief look at Caseley-Hayford’s AW10 collection, which includes the ultimate accessory: a single fair-isle sleeve. Caseley-Hayford’s philosophy may best state the reason for this strangely evil item…

All men possess elements of anarchy within their character. Anarchy is not about the total absence of rules, but rather the significance of autonomy. The Casely-Hayford ethos represents a unique expression of freedom created when conformity threatens identity, or convention restricts spontaneity; we fuse this expression of the free spirit with the very particular gestures of English sartorialism. The House aims to distil a multitude of ideas into a simple pure entity: innovation through tradition.

Yeah, we can get behind this, even though it’s a little awkward with the set-in sleeve cap. But it’s an extra long fingerless mitt, a grown’n’sexy version of the always tragic emo armsock, and for that matter, a grown’n’sexy version of the Brian Molko fishnet armsock we loved to love back in the day. Would we hot-rod one (or two) and put it (them) on the right boy for editorial purposes? Yeah, probably. The practicality of this item without some modification, however, is debatable. Yet it’s still awesome. Would we chart some diabolical fair isle and inflict it on the masses? You bet your ass.