Liberal Youth Ministry Men’s Fall 2022

Mexican designer Antonio Zaragoza called his brand Liberal Youth Ministry as a nod to his interest in youth cultures and movements. True to an adolescent’s ability to change moods and tastes on a dime, he swapped his previous collection’s bright upbeat tones and positive outlook for a moodier proposal in his Paris debut.

Cue “Liberal Youth Foundation,” a fall collection that Zaragoza described as being dark. Not as in evil, mind. “Just like the comfortable way of being in darkness in a spiritual way,” he added, explaining he looked back to the brand’s roots and his “passion for being punk, not in the ’70s subculture, but as a philosophy” of rebelling against the system.

The one he’s up against? Systematic industrial mass production. Hence the heavy focus on handcraft throughout a grungy collection where most looks featured distressing, hand-tooling or the addition of spikes — a nod to his teenage self’s “primitive way of thinking about fashion,” aka, destroying garments.

The ensemble felt like a kid’s dress-up box, a mish-mash of well-worn clothes discarded by older siblings, clown costumes and random oddities like 3D-printed crowns and cartoonish body armor. Closer inspection turned up great leather moto jackets; well-cut Neoprene suits printed with “Black Swans” in a Goosebumps-meets-indie-rock font; faux-shredded kicks in collaboration with fellow Dover Street Market Paris protégé Phileo, and a procession of stonewashed denim and sweats, all cut a shade too big, to telegraph the idea of gangly teens.

And if the notion came to mind that any of these could be achieved with vintage finds and elbow grease, that’s the kind of ultimate punk gesture of which Zaragoza would approve.

Launch Gallery: Liberal Youth Ministry Men's Fall 2022