Kiko Kostadinov Haunts the Present

Let’s break down a pivotal show by Kiko Kostadinov : the AW21 menswear collection. If you follow his work, standout pieces like the Dorset Knit Vest, lace-up trousers, Maiden High Boots, or the Harkman shoe likely caught your attention. Whether in textiles or footwear, Kiko truly nailed it this season.

Genesis of the Collection

The collection emerged in a challenging post‑COVID period, a time that allowed Kiko and his studio moments of introspection. Though the previous collection was constrained by those difficulties, this season marked a turning point, allowing him to fully express his creative vision.

What Does Somnium Mean ?

The collection is aptly titled Somnium, Latin for “dream,” “vision,” or “chimera,” derived from somnus meaning “sleep.” Common in classical literature, somnium evokes nocturnal dreams, reverie, or illusion. Naming the collection thus sets an ethereal tone as if the garments were born at the border between reality and imagination.

Concept : Hauntology

But why choose this name for the collection ? There are many explanations, follow closely because we’re diving into the details now. Through this collection, Kiko Kostadinov pursues his exploration of a very particular concept : Hauntology. The word comes from the combination of “haunting” and “ontology” (the study of being, of what exists). It was coined by philosopher Jacques Derrida in the early 1990s.

Jacques Derrida

Basically, hauntology is the idea that the past continues to haunt the present, even though it’s supposed to be over. It’s like ideas, aesthetics, or hopes from the past come back as ghosts in today’s culture. The present is haunted by memories, aesthetics, or hopes from the past especially when those things never fully materialized. Originally rooted in Marxist theory, it later found relevance in music, art, and design recalling past visions of the future that never happened, like floating cars from retro‑futuristic media.

Hauntology in Kiko Kostadinov’s Fashion

In fashion, and more specifically for Kiko, hauntology manifests as a complex, non-linear mix of references : retro-futuristic cuts, utilitarian inspirations, artisanal or sporty techniques, disrupted floral patterns…Nothing is dated or fixed, everything seems to come from a blurry past or an alternative future. The result : clothes that feel familiar without being recognizable, like memories that never existed. He blends fuzzy memories of the past, future imaginaries, forgotten or displaced elements to create something totally new… yet that feels like it already existed.

With these explanations, we already understand a bit more about the collection’s name and the environment in which the models walk, but we’ll come back to that shortly.

Two Books That Influenced Kiko Kostadinov

Now I want to talk about two works that marked Kiko Kostadinov, helping him explore hauntology further and especially to propose such a collection.

The first book is A Dream of Wessex by Christopher Priest (1977). In this novel, a group of people enters a shared virtual reality built from unconscious desires, memories, and collective projections. This parallel world, supposed to be utopian, becomes blurry, unstable, reflecting the ambiguities of the human mind. In the book characters live in a simulated world, caught between dream, memory, and future.

In Kiko’s AW21 collection, the models are placed in a clinical purgatory, made of suspended sleeping pods, an out-of-time space, waiting, like the floating spirits of Wessex. While 30 looks from the show circulate on mainstream media, Kiko actually offers 90 silhouettes, 60 generated out of context with different styling only available on his site, as if the clothes themselves evolved in an unstable matrix beyond the imposed styling.

The second book inspiring Kiko is In Honey From a Weed by Patience Gray (1986).

This book frequently explores the relationship between humans and the earth. The author emphasizes wild foraging, gathering herbs, roots, fruits, and mushrooms and highlights the importance of what nature offers spontaneously.

She also observes local food cultures, describing how Mediterranean peasants cultivate their land. Gray details the culinary and medicinal uses of plants often tied to traditional practices. Though not a gardening manual, the book includes many reflections on manual work in the garden or vegetable patch, spotlighting simple, authentic gestures like planting, harvesting, and preserving.

It’s no coincidence that this season features floral details on some pants or sets, born from the images this book evokes. But you couldn’t necessarily identify the exact flower or plant, it stays in that “fuzzy memory of the past,” an “ikebana from a parallel world.” The collection’s tones evoke the Mediterranean, shades of sea blue, petrol, cloudy blue, rust, burnt earth, sandy brown, with bright touches of turquoise, lavender pink, vermillion, and canary yellow.

There are many pants with an extra utilitarian layer at the waist referencing a gardener’s apron, not to mention the Maiden High Boot that fits perfectly with the theme. Actually, I totally imagine one of these looks out in nature in Greece, picking capers or figs at the end of August.

By the way, I have a very credible hypothesis : these boots are directly inspired by a Muck Boots model : the Edgewater II Tall Boots, that Kiko himself wears, notably when walking his dog in bad weather.

Spotlight on the Frederick Cord Trousers

We’ve learned a lot about this show, but there’s one more piece I want to explore with you : the Frederick Cord Trousers, which I find simply magnificent. They have lacing at the bottom with petal-shaped eyelets. 

These pants draw inspiration from Bulgarian folk costumes (some dating back to the 19th/20th century). We know Kiko Kostadinov draws heavily on worker uniforms, Japanese styles… but Bulgarian folklore is something that appears repeatedly in his collections. It’s something I’m personally exploring and hope to write an article about very soon.

Bulgarian Folk costumes Frederick Cord Trouser's

I hope you learned something about this AW21 season. If you created a profile on Kolroy, feel free to comment and share your thoughts on this collection.