One of the greatest pleasures I have known is the anticipation for Fashion Week’s. En route attending to a certain Fashion show, I dream of early morning grey skies, the city stretching out beneath my balcony as gulls fly overhead, the smell of freshly baked pastries and bread and the ever-inspiring impeccable street style the city is renowned for. Fashion Week is much more than an event, it’s an institution, a sense of community, and a living, breathing piece of art that is constantly changing, growing and evolving. As a designer, I am always intrigued to discover what influences, ideas and concepts the other designers have been working with for the season, and for 2015 I would love to share with you some of the collections that inspired, touched and affected me the most.
Rick Owens
Located in the basement of the Palais De Tokyo, Paris’ modern art museum, the Rick Owens Fall 2015 show started off with a gentle lull beckoning the viewer in the dust grey layers, raw edges and sombre Earth tones. But as the show progressed, a glimmer of light grew and expanded from rich gold tones and gold-leafed faces, to copper sequinned tunics trailing lengths of the metallic ribbon. It was like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, a metaphor that seems ill placed on a designer that has never descended from his elevated position in fashion mythology.
Ann Demeulemeester
With the new creative director Sebastien Meunier at the helm of the Ann Demeulemeester for 2015, it was impossible not to feel a buzz of anticipation for the designer’s artistic direction. It’s not easy to follow in the footsteps of a revolutionary. So when the models came streaming down the runway with smudged eyeliner and wet-look hair wearing billowing black shirts and boldly striped fabrics bound by leather corset-belts, the onlookers breathed a sigh of relief that the spirit of Demeulemeester was still and alive and well.
Yang Li
A master of contradictions; gentle and hard, light and dark, organic and synthetic, past and future, Yang Li manages to retain his signature 90’s aesthetic for 2015 whilst simultaneously thrusting us into the future of fashion. Perhaps the most striking features of the show were the aluminium fused garments that looked like organic anomalies, slices of raw earth and semi-precious stone dissected and fused to the human form. The real magic though was in the movement of the full length silk dupion gowns, flared trousers and heavy wool coats, which transported the audience to a dark dystopian opera of the future.
Marc Jacobs
As models walked over the carpet, guests heard the sound of girls walking on gravel, random every day sounds and a computerized voice explaining what was happening on the runway. But the clothes stood up to the fun theatrics. Of course, one might expect a tongue-in-cheek ode to real housewives of the ’50s or ’60s with a pink house like that, but instead Jacobs did a 180 with louche military.
I love being able to look at different dresses and designs during a fashion show. It’s what I live for. I love to see my designs worn by pretty girls and adored by many.
