Miu Miu, AW13, Paris.
The recent Miu Miu collection was a careful study in how to push a single design idea to the limits, with careful developments of cuts and colours evolving over the course of the show. These ideas were supported by key construction details that supported a variety of silhouettes.
Proenza Schouler, AW13, New York.
Black and white is a timeless theme that is often used by designers for the graphic qualities that can be induced in garments simply by placing the whitest of whites and the blackest of blacks side by side.
The recent collection by Proenza Schouler for Autumn-Winter 2013 however did not rest on easy graphic monochrome, instead exploring counterchange down to the smallest levels of embellishment.
Alexander McQueen, SS13, Paris.
The recent Alexander McQueen collection was intensely detailed, with minute fabric layering and honeycomb peephole details. The Spring-Summer 2013 under the reign of Sarah Burton centred around the idea of the bee hive, and the concept was the driving force behind structural and textural details as diverse as exquisite mesh, bee brocades and over blown flowers.
Antipodium, SS13, London.
The Spring-Summer 2013 collection by Antipodium referenced cosmetic surgery and fleshy skin tones through creepy placement prints and a variety of textures that worked with the curves of the body. The placement prints came in the form of single colour line work that was reminiscent of cosmetic surgery markings.
Issey Miyake, SS13, Paris.
In the Spring-Summer 2013 collection for Issey Miyake, Yoshiyuki Miyamae used vibrant colour, bold graphic lines and incredible disintegrating pleating to fill the sculptural clothing with movement.
Louis Vuitton, SS13, Paris.
It was all about the graphic use of counterchange at the Spring-Summer 2013 show for Louis Vuitton. A checkerboard design was used in a wide variety of scales, with minute details to match.
Chalayan, SS13, Paris.
The recent collection by Hussein Chalayan for Spring-Summer 2013 featured crisp white tailoring, and vibrant flashes of colour with hints of sporting fabrications. It was above all a refreshing collection, a solid palette cleanser with Chalayan’s usual exquisite attention to detail.
Christopher Kane, SS13, London.
The influence of the Frankenstein narrative emerged in the recent collection by Christopher Kane in a variety of ways. The sheer magnitude of experiments in the Spring-Summer 2013 collection, seemed in itself to suggest that Kane had himself become his own version of Dr. Frankenstein.
Valentino, RST13, Paris.
The Valentino collection for Resort 2013 contrasted a selection of delicate laces in sorbet shades with graphic stripes and a leopard print spot. The laces and embellishments were used in a variety of ways, from laces appliqued in pieces over a sheer backing, to delicate beading that appeared to have been engineered to each cut piece of fabric.
Rodarte, SS12, New York.
The Spring-Summer 2012 collection from Rodarte centered around the colours and textures that Vincent van Gogh used to great effect in his oil paintings. The tones were at times as vibrant as van Gogh’s depiction of sunflowers, while in other garments the tones were muted and murky as in Starry Night Over the Rhone (1888).
Danielle Scutt, SS12, London.
There was an interesting mix of high end / lo-fi street references in the recent Danielle Scutt collection for Spring-Summer 2012. On the one hand there was a certain youthful quality to the vibrant polka dots and disjointed checks and on the other hand this was balanced out by the more conservative monochrome tailoring.
Valentino, Couture, SS12, Paris.
There are some designers who can take an idea or a technique that has been used time and time again, and can bring their own freshness to them to use the techniques in new and beautiful ways. Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, as the creative directors at Valentino, are finding ever more intricate ways to work with lace, and lace-like effects to build ethereal collections.
Giles, SS12, London.
Lasercutting fabrics and leather is a clever technique that can be used to create lace-like effects out of more solid base cloths. The effect of laser cutting fabric completely changes the drape of the fabric, in the same way that a fabric with a wider looser weave is more fluid, so too is lasercut fabric effected in a similar way.
Missoni, AW11, Milan.
There are some catwalk shows that are almost blinding in the designers use of colours, textures, patterns and layers of garments. Missoni is definitely one such show which can become almost overwhelming in the sheer magnitude of pieces and individual ideas that are on display.
Anne Sofie Madsen, SS12, Copenhagen.
A lot of designers find inspiration in a hard vs soft, sheer vs opaque dialogue but often this can create construction problems as the weights of the contrasting materials fight against each other. The images above and below show some interesting experiments with materials such as leather applied to a fine mesh base, from The Spring-Summer 2012 Collection by Anne Sofie Madsen. The play with texture is also used through quilting and through draping fine accordion pleating.
