When Lutz Huelle was invited to be AZ Factory’s spring 2023 Amigo (the name the company has given to its rotating designers), he approached the collection as a one-off project. As he’s since been invited to stick around for a while and focus on creating the brand’s resort offerings, Huelle refers to this season’s lineup as “collection zero,” meaning one in a series that will develop a shared language.
For Huelle, starting from zero didn’t mean erasing what came before; there are echoes of his first collection for the house here, including the carry-over of the shirting. Less expected is the way he leaned into the pretty party dressing that Alber Elbaz was known for, and which he has experience doing from his time at Delpozo. The opening look, a curvy off-the-shoulder knit cocktail dress, declares this theme from the start. A yellow tent dress made to move captures a freer spirit, while a longer version with an asymmetric bejeweled hem has a Vionnet-like simplicity. Some of the other wrapped and draped options feel more par for the course than directional.
One of the designer’s favorite looks (and this reviewer’s too) consists of a white shirt cut like a jacket paired with a beautifully full-cut pair of khakis, sprinkled with stardust rhinestones at the waist. Here you see the commingling of Elbaz’s spirit with Huelle’s; the designers share a sense of generosity that imbues the everyday with a little bit of fantasy. “Elbaz’s catch phrase was ‘Smart fashion that cares,’ and it was about finding solutions for women,” noted Huelle.
Always fond of hybrids in his own collection, the designer married pajama and tuxedo pants and paired them with a caftan covered in an animalier print is actually a scattered pattern of hearts. Huelle’s signature jean jacket takes a cardigan shape here at AZ Factory, while a tailored blazer and vest top are cut with hourglass proportions, a trend this season.
The built-up shoulders of the vest speak to Huelle’s training under Martin Margiela but also nod to Elbaz’s signature exposed zippers. One of the most interesting aspects of this collection is the way Huelle has worked with fabrics. Those tent dresses are essentially constructed from two squares of fabric gathered at the shoulder. Silver was applied to easy separates after pleating to create a “work-in-progress” feeling, and cotton tops with asymmetrical ruffles look like they were wrapped around a form, gathered, and secured. This idea of nonintervention—the sense of a hand working with the fabric—is another way that care and freedom from constraint are expressed in this collection.
