More heavy metal pretty and dark functionality from my extreme materials fantasy boyfriend Asger Juel Larsen, with knitted leather. Or is that rubber? But the coat! Seriously, the coat. Go look! (via Coûte.)

This sweater is to die for:

I have no appropriate responses to Asger Juel Larsen. Seriously. Any phrase I can think of to sum up what I think about his designs includes the word “fuck,” which isn’t befitting of a lady. Finally, there are editorial quality photos that show good detail (via Coûte.) Also, I kind of love this adolescent model, who is going to be this heavy metal pretty for about ten more minutes before he starts to look like a man.

If I was inclined to write a big sappy love letter to a designer right now, it would be to Asger Juel Larsen. Late last fall I talked a little about his 09 collection which included a host of handknit rubber pieces that totally wrecked his hands. This fall, hes got knitted elastic, quilted leather, polyvinylchloride, and this thing above that Ash Stymest is working. It’s like an underivative, unholy hybrid of Gareth Pugh’s slashed knits and the massive neckpieces from Lanvin’s AW09 collection. What’s more is that it works. The AW10 collection includes 20 pieces, which I assume are individually constructed by him (hopefully fueled by Joy Division). It’s presented in part at Fashionisto and via Fashion 156.

So why the love letter? Larsen has produced two effortless-looking, yet bleeding edge collections that incorporate fashion foundations — tailoring and utter exploitation of materials and their properties — and his atelier website is on blogspot. (I’m a fan.) He’s pushing the envelope with knits, incorporating hand and machine knits that utilize non-traditional materials to bend the properties of the textile normally created with those techniques. (Super stretch, super strength, super hero). If this is futureshock, I like it. Also, the current collection referenced Julie Taymor’s Titus. (Beat that with a stick.)

We missed Asger Juel Larsen in Dazed early this summer, but here’s what he has to say about creating these spectacular handknit rubber pieces for his AW09 menswear collection.  This sounds a little like knitting at Chez Yarneteria. 

I wanted to knit a futuristic armour piece, so I considered different materials such as videotape, bicycle wheel, rubber cord, rope, wire, shoelaces and leather. I found both the rubber and the leather/ PVC cord exciting. Maybe It wasn’t the smartest and easiest choice, since I had many endless nights listening to Joy Division while using approximately 1.750 meter of rubber cord, two bottles of baby powder and many broken knitting sticks to make the rubber armour piece.

I first saw this item in Fashion156’s Black & White Issue a couple of weeks ago, and assumed it was hanknit leather cording (click for bigger):

This is the kind of materials sourcing I’d like to see more of.  Michaela has been talking about knitting with leather for years.  The only barrier is expense — cording and pre-cut lacing are prohibitively expensive in the quantities needed for a garment of this size.  I admire Larsen’s ingenuity in working in with PVC and rubber together with leather and metal, though I can’t imagine the expense to create the items in this collection.   Nor can I imagine what he put his hands through to knit with rubber…  The awesome news is that Larsen is still in school at London College of Fashion working on an AW10 collection and his MA collection, which means there’s definitely more to come. 

Get an eyeful of the collection via Coûte que Coûte and Dazed.  Different styling, different models, different impact.