It was hot, hot, hot on the first day of men’s fashion week, but Meta Campania’s Jon Strassburg was keeping it cool with a collection set in the windy Atlantic climes of Normandy.
The collection, titled “Mohn” — the German word for poppy — took inspiration from the windswept northern coastline of France, which carries personal resonance for British German Strassburg.
The designer’s British grandfather was a pilot shot down during D-Day. That family history served as an emotional starting point for the season, reinforced by a campaign set against chalky cliffs.
The poppy flower itself became a touchstone, both for its vivid color and fleeting nature.
“For me it’s more the beauty and it’s very ethereal,” he said. “It’s so pretty and so fragile, but only lasts for like two [to] three days.”
The collection remains committed to what Strassburg describes as the “artist’s uniform,” now a core pillar of the brand. Here, he reinterprets workwear jackets and lab coats, puffing them up with cargo pockets that swell into sculptural forms for a more fashion-forward take on practicality.
Womenswear in this coed collection shared those house codes, with unstructured tailoring, elongated outerwear and relaxed separates. Key were construction and proportion, such as the elongated waistlines seen on sleek, two-toned knit dress.
Fabrication is central to his work. Strassburg used garment-dyed silks, silk jacquards, silk-cashmere blends and cottons to create pieces that felt structured yet intentionally light.
That touch was particularly evident in the expanding eveningwear offering, where bias-cut leopard print slipdresses, silk knitwear and fluid separates introduced a more dressed-up proposition while maintaining the ease that defines the label.
The color story was equally light in seafoam greens, faded sky blues, chalk whites and sandy neutrals that evoke the Normandy landscape. Against this washed palette, the poppy motif delivered strategic moments of saturated red through prints and floral brooches handcrafted in Italy.
Strassburg’s emphasis on the light fabrics, unlined construction and fluid layering arrives at a moment when fashion’s traditional seasonal calendar feels increasingly out of step with reality.
His answer is not overt climate dressing, but an offering built around ease and adaptability, and the result was a collection of seasonless investment pieces.
