The Tamesis
Dušan Paunovic is a designer with very idiosyncratic habits. He has no time for color, has never been tempted by a dress, and even if you held a magnifying glass you wouldn’t find a button on his jacket or coat. “Buttons? No. They ruin every design,” he said while showing off his latest collection. The mere mention of “bodycon” makes him cringe. “Sexy” and “fashionable” aren’t much better. Fiercely independent and entirely self-funded, he defers to no one but his uncompromising taste. Fortunately, this is a standard he is able to adhere to, sourcing only the best fabrics from the best producers. The cashmere he prefers, mostly from Scotland, is “more compact and tighter than Italian cashmere, which is fluffier and lighter,” he says. “But the Italians are masters of colour. In Scotland they haven’t updated their palette for centuries.” His mentor Zoran, whose judgment would have been notoriously sharper, would have been proud.
Panovich’s favorite color is gray. “I like it because it’s sad,” he said, with the conviction that most people reserve for brighter emotions. “It reminds me of the communist uniforms of my youth in Serbia.” This season, he’s cautiously trying to diversify. The palette expands enough to include barely visible shades of moss green and brown, like the tundra in winter: technically different, but still gray in spirit. They’re beautiful, even though his collection seems tailor-made for the world’s most elegant color-blind clientele.
Don’t bother trying to get him to nail down his style. “It’s not minimalism – I hate that word. Purism? No. Basic? It doesn’t make any sense.” As a result, Toussaint’s style remains stubbornly nameless and elusive. It’s practical, but not basic. It’s not cumbersome, but it’s extremely complex. It’s luxurious, but very discreet. He’s been making the same pieces for years, just changing the fabrics, tweaking the tones a little, adding more textures, or introducing a few details—a cashmere trench coat with sides; a duster lined with rustling taffeta; a loose parka in premium Tasmanian wool; a roomy ribbed sweater with a bald collar. Sarong skirts were the only ones he could stand, almost an acre of expensive rectangles of fabric wrapped around his hips. Cashmere denim comes in the most unassuming shade of blue. The same daywear piece can be resurfaced in silk, velvet or liquid satin: “Go to La Scala and you just add a diamond brooch,” he says. You never throw away Toussaint; you inherit it from your past self. It will always live a chic life in your wardrobe.
