Any fashion show or presentation has a proper beginning and an end. Conceptually, however, it’s a process already underway: past the genesis of the idea, yet still unrealized for retail. Luke Meier seized on this narrative device—more specifically, its Latin translation, in medias res—to explore the theme of isolation in his latest OAMC collection. He conceived a lush vignette hemmed in by illuminated metal bars, as if overlapping the allegorical notion of being marooned on a deserted island with the contemporary sensation of feeling trapped in a world of oversharing. Isolation can be terrifying, sometimes it leads to madness, but it’s also often the catalyst for creativity. Meier built this collection from philosophical, psychological, and sociological considerations, intellectualizing the design with questions like, “How does being removed from society begin to morph the image of the self and the moral compass?”

But here’s the genius: OAMC doesn’t do over-intellectualized clothes. Quite the contrary. A wardrobe for survival within a luxury construct resulted in such standout pieces as an unstructured technical trench with minimum seaming, a leather jacket embellished with hand-painted leaves, and hoods tacked onto technical coated cotton jackets. A warm-up surf suit in dusty rose, aprons in moody vintage checks, and a translucent polyurethane shell were different manifestations of improvisational functionality that happened to end up highly finessed. Alternately, a coat manufactured in Italy that featured a primitive figure in a wavy textured jacquard could have been mounted on a wall as outsider art.

Which brings us back to in medias res, three words among a stream-of-consciousness text scribbled onto cuffs, sashes, and a cross-body satchel large enough to hold a week’s worth of food. “Pandaemonium,” a reference to John Milton’s city of hell in Paradise Lost, was there, too. Up close, the message was darker than the crisp zip-tunic shirts and basket-woven coats would suggest, which makes them even more attractive to the end user. “I like that people figure out these things later,” said Meier, who is short-listed for the ANDAM Grand Prix Award. “I like that there’s depth.”