It’s somehow ironic that in a fashion industry that has gone terribly wrong and seems to be more or less unanimously considering Victoria Beckham as a real fashion designer with an impressive knowledge about dressmaking and the female form (so, who was Christian Dior?), some sportswear companies are actually coming up with more interesting and elegant ideas than many fashion houses.
This is for example the case with Lacoste. In his last collection for the sports label after ten years, Creative Director Christophe Lemaire went back to the brand's roots, drawing inspiration from the career and early successes of tennis champion and brand founder Jean-René Lacoste.
Lemaire found a new kind of elegance in looks that seemed to be borrowed from the 1920s or from Cecil Beaton’s iconic photographs, matching streamlined modern polo shirts with pleated trousers, studying the potential of clean lines and employing perforated fabrics that had something architectural about them in dresses and mini-skirts.
A sense of exoticism was added to the collection through bright colours such orange or red and fuchsia, ample kimonos and beige, brown and tobacco safari jackets matched with leather visors, rope belts and stacks of sculptural wooden bangles.
There were a couple of graphic T-shirts aimed at a younger market that looked rather redundant and out of place, and the straw hats didn't seem to display the perfect proportions of classic Panama hats, but the collection excelled in the garments that showed a clear derivation from the Bauhaus and modernist architecture, like Robert Mallet-Stevens' Villa Noailles.
Mentioned by the designer as one of his inspirations, the villa, located in the South of France, resembles a ship stranded on a slope and also features a rather unusual garden designed by Gabrile Guevrekian characterised by an extreme manipulation of the perspective.
Lemaire also mixed perspective distortion and Op Art, coming up with modern and minimalist pieces.
Who
knows, maybe he even watched Elio Petri’s La decima vittima while designing this collection, since the black and white tops with a motif that called to mind Victor Vasarely’s “Vonal KSZ” also resembled the mysterious optical art-like targets that director Petri used in the set for Lidia's house to hide secret spaces and rooms.
Lemaire is definitely one to watch as he prepares to take his new role as Creative Director at Hermès.
Successor Felipe Oliveira Baptista should maybe start worrying as it will be difficult to do better than this.
In the meantime we are left with a final question: will we finally see models smiling also at the next Hermès runway like we did at Lacoste's?
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
http://www.boxxet.com/my/badgeBN.80.15.js?boxxetId=u23036
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
http://www.boxxet.com/my/badgeBN.160.30.js?boxxetId=u23036
Add to Technorati Favorites
http://www.lijit.com/wijitinit?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lijit.com%2Fusers%2Fabnet75&js=1Lijit Search
Rispondi