DESTRUCTION OF THE EMPTY SPACES

A lot of people can design a decent leather jacket. As long as the materials are right, most of the battle is already won--you could pretty much take a good skin straight off the tanning rack, add a zip and I'd wear it, as long as whatever animal it was ripped off made sure to moisturize and wear sunscreen. As long as the leather itself is thick and sexy, most of the pleasure of wearing the jacket is in breaking it in and molding it to your shape, not any extra design-y features.

Maya Yogev, who designs the label Grai, apprenticed under Rick Owens, and it shows. Now Rick Owens is one of my favorite designers, not to mention a total killer, but I think his 'look' is kind of seeping its way into other people's clothing, and coming out kind of watered-down and half-assed in the process. Yogev was clearly influenced by her time working for the King Goth, but her designs are still nicely simply, the leather looks pleasingly supple, and although some of her pieces have a little unnecessary frippery (like hooks and eyes going down the backs of some jackets... no thanks), I would definitely wear the ones above, especially the leather vests... layering perfection!

Although I read on Stylefile that Grai was one of the lines showing at LA Fashion Week, I wasn't really that into it until I looked up Yogev and found out she designed a special jacket collection for Black Sabbath! Dude, way to catch my attention. I hope this becomes a trend... young designers making their names by putting together collections for, like, Electric Wizard. Plus, the jackets are pretty amazing in their own right. You can check out some pics of them here. How could you not feel a little inspired when you think of these beautiful guys, though...