ROKSANDA ILINCIC SS15

"...an abstract rendering of melted plastic; a tech-weave could be easily mistaken for a print in pictures, a silk organza reads like denim, and the season’s featherweight jacquard looks more like a much heavier quilt."

SACAI SS15

"Military might met flower power on the Sacai. In the hands of designer Chitose Abe, the juxtaposition of each style of dress blended with the other to simultaneously soften and strength their inherent stereotypes.

The designer reduced the rigor of khaki military uniforms by, say, folding floral print chiffon into the garment. A navy sailor’s Breton sweater was completed with feminine white guipure lace. And an Airforce bomber jacket was cut in a shapely silk but stiffened up through the use of military officer lapels.

When Abe wasn’t beautifully working her core concept, worn with playful platform hiking boot sandals,  she was coming up with other winning ideas. The whole man/woman mélange popped up in the final pinstriped business suit looks with chiffon inserts billowing out at seams or cut directly into the linear fabric to break its sartorial rhythm.  A little tangent trip into the blue and green plaids of a Scottish kilt was also a worthwhile detour with the grid pattern of the garment reworked and echoed onto lace panels.

This season, the designer also smartly evolved the brand’s trademark style of splicing different wardrobe staples together to create trompe l'oeil outfits. Only a few sweater fronted pieces towards the start of the show felt familiar. Otherwise Abe showed herself to be pushing her design aesthetic in interesting new avenues."     http://nowfashion.com/sacai-ready-to-wear-spring-summer-2015-paris-10987

CHRISTOPHER KANE SS15

Dedicating his collection to the late Louise Wilson, Kane revisits unseen pieces from his early work inside the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall

 

THOM BROWNE

"Just when you thought there was no longer any way to spin the ludicrous extravagance of a Thom Browne show, the man turned the game upside down with a collection whose paradoxical marriage of restraint and excess produced a genuine, Stone Gon' fashion moment. The restraint was in the silhouettes: a trouser suit, a jacket and flaring skirt, a coat—all straightforward, untroubled by Browne's yen to de- and reconstruct. The excess was in the fabrics: gorgeous, multidimensional assaults on reason. But, because they were contained within a comprehensible, familiar frame, they entranced rather than perplexed. It was the smartest move Browne has ever made—it spotlighted his skill, rather than his willfulness." http://www.style.com/fashion-shows/spring-2015-ready-to-wear/thom-browne

YOHJI YAMAMOTO

 

"Women "of the night" who've had a few dangerous liaisons emerging from their lovers' beds in disheveled layered slip dresses, cropped tailoring with low-slung hipster trousers and twisted boob tubes with mannish coats – the kind that Yohji Yamamoto does so well. The models slow-walked to a simmering tango offering up knowing glances here and there. Yamamoto once said in his autobiography, My Dear Bomb, “There is not much to be said for exposing the flesh as if in some blatant offering.” Here there was flesh but it wasn't up for grabs. What Yohji's women concealed still made the mind wonder."

Next week the second year fashion course of Limerick School of Art and Design are going on a trip to London. We're researching five contemporary designers prior to the trip. We'll get to know their signature styles and current trends for SS15. On going to London I plan to visit the stores that displays the designers work and study the quality of the garments. Our brief then states that when we come home we shall select our favourite two designers and design a garment with one particular in mind.