Christopher Kane can turn water into wine. Always suspected, but I’m coming to believe it now, after learning about the starting point of his luminous (with pun intended) S/S’12 collection: teenage girls wreaking havoc with stickers to wallpaper of their bedrooms in grim council states. Quite how such insipidness came to inspire a collection which, I feel, has the legs to go past the spring/summer season, is beyond me.
The origami-influenced stiff details on the shifts and skirts were suggestive of wallpapers peeling off, due to the girls mucking about with the stickers. I can see this articulation of the dress seams becoming quite the rage, but, I, personally, wasn’t too keen on them as they made the pieces much too angular for my liking.
What I did like (loved, actually!) was their richly glistening fabric ‒ which was Lurex brocade.
Next group was cut from a ‘ghost’ fabric, a 70% aluminium (!) organza, which gave off an iridescent sheer. They were adorned with flower appliqués in a ravishing combination of colours ‒ that felt rather like cut out stickers from those girls’ scrapbooks. One particular nude-coloured dress in this shimmering organza was overlaid with witty rainbow-hued floral collage patches, and it looked breathtakingly pretty.
Just when you thought this collection couldn’t have any more of intense, focused craft, out came those dresses, tops and skirts with opulent Indian beading (read zardozi!), again reminiscent of rhinestone stick-ons from those girls’ bedrooms. I liked how the kitsch element was toned down with a sugared almond palette.
But it was the footwear – which was flat, cushioned and sensible-soled, with adjustable straps, beads or sparkles – that grabbed much of the attention, for the right or wrong reasons.
How can this collection be translated into a regular girl’s wardrobe? Good dose of brocade and pastel colours, just like Jonathan Saunders before him. Sheer fabrics, like Erdem suggested as well. I found those flower appliqués a novel way of donning floral patterns, and can easily sewn into dresses, skirts, tops, kurtis, or just about anything, really. The tasteful and restrained use of jewel embellishments is another accessible tip. Erm, how about those pool sandals? Okay, okay I’ll get my coat now…