Getting into Michael Rider’s Stuff
So, I kept hearing the name Michael Rider float around. You know how it is, you see a piece here, a mention there. At first, I didn’t pay much attention. Just another designer, right? But then I saw this one coat. I think it was from an older Celine collection when he was there. It wasn’t flashy, but the way it hung… just perfect. It got me curious.
Down the Rabbit Hole
I started digging. Not like, super academic research, more like late-night scrolling. I pulled up images of his work, both from Celine and his own label. Lots of looking. Trying to figure out what made that coat, and other pieces, work so well. It wasn’t about crazy details. It felt more about the cut, the shape. The lines seemed really simple, but getting that simplicity right? That looked hard.
I spent a good chunk of time just staring at seams, shoulders, how the fabric fell. I even tried sketching some of the silhouettes, just quick little doodles on scrap paper. It helped me sort of internalize the shapes he goes for. Very clean, strong sometimes, but always effortless-looking.
Trying It Out (Sort Of)
Then came the tricky part. I thought, okay, let me try and capture some of that feeling. Not copy a whole garment, that’s way beyond my quick practice sessions. I had this old oversized blazer I never wore. The shoulders were all wrong, too much padding, felt dated. I thought about Rider’s tailoring, how precise it seemed, even when relaxed.
So, I decided to rework the shoulders on that blazer. What a process.
- First, I took out the old pads. Easy enough.
- Then I tried reshaping the shoulder line. This was way harder than I thought. Getting it to sit right without looking droopy or weirdly pointy took ages.
- I pinned, unpinned, stitched a bit, ripped stitches out. Probably spent a whole afternoon just on one shoulder.
- I realized his ‘simple’ look probably involves some really clever internal structure or pattern cutting that I just couldn’t see or replicate easily.
It didn’t end up looking exactly like a Michael Rider piece, of course. It still looked like my slightly wonky, reworked blazer. But the process of trying to get that specific shoulder line, that specific drape? That was the real practice here.
What I Reckon Now
Doing that little experiment, even just messing with an old blazer, gave me a new appreciation. It’s one thing to look at a photo and say ‘oh, that’s nice and minimal’. It’s another thing to actually try and make fabric behave that way. That clean look takes serious skill. It’s not about adding stuff, it’s about taking away everything unnecessary and perfecting what’s left. The cut has to be spot on. The fabric choice is probably super critical too. Things I didn’t even think about deeply before just looking.
So yeah, my little ‘Michael Rider’ practice session didn’t result in a masterpiece. But it made me look at tailoring and design differently. It’s less about the surface and more about the bones underneath. Definitely made me respect the craft a lot more.
