The Cutting Class

Rodarte, SS12.

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).

Much of the surface texture of the collection focused on different ways to translate the artist’s brushstrokes into textile manipulations and embellishments. The circular movement of daubs of paint were translated into swirling embroideries or lines of sequins in jewel tones. The thick, glossy texture of oil paint bubbled into lines of thick organic pleating in pastel greens and mauves.

The most literal applications of the paintings, which came in the form of digitally printed silks, gave a nod to modern technology as the thick painterly marks were mixed and blurred with different sized sections of pixelation. The varying pixel sizes also echoed the metallics that were mixed in with the collection which acted as a reference to van Gogh’s use of shimmering light in his paintings.

Images from Vogue.co.uk».

Alexander McQueen, AW10.

For many who knew or worked with Alexander McQueen, or for those many people who admired the work of Alexander McQueen, the pieces from his final collection must carry with them an incredible sense of sadness and devastation. Not only because they were the final pieces that he was working on up until his death, but also because they are so exquisite. In many ways the solemn presentation of these pieces, away from the theatre of the catwalk, gave everyone a chance to see just how carefully crafted they were, how the silhouettes were moulded and supported to perfection, how the emotive prints were shaped almost invisibly by darts and panels to sculpt the prints to the bodies of the models.

Everything about this collection showed discipline and restraint and an unabashed respect for pure craftsmanship, and that in itself speak volumes about McQueens work. While McQueen was of course notorious for his displays of dramatic shows, the foundation of his success was still his ability to create breath taking garments. It is not simply enough to be outspoken, brave or infamous for this can be seen as largely superficial. At the end of the day McQueen always knew just how to achieve perfect proportions and how to construct his fantasy garments from the inside out.

Images from Vogue.co.uk».

Anne Sofie Madsen, SS12.

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.

Images from Vogue.co.uk».