There is one experiment I would like to do one day and that’s seeing the reaction of a classically trained tailor or dressmaker in front of a Rodarte collection.
Would somebody with a genuine knowledge of garment construction spot any imperfections or say that these are simply flawless designs?
Would a technical audience use the same grand words of the fashion press or would they spot some kind of unconvincing element in the draped motifs or in the fit and catalogue the breast plates out of their latest collection as flights of fancy? Who knows.
Hailed as the next big thing to come out of America and to have a solid impact on European fashionistas as well, the Rodarte sisters somehow keep on amazing me for the extraordinary reactions they always get from the media.
Indeed, in the maelstrom of fashion confusion and ready-to-wear blandness that is New York Fashion Week, Rodarte represent more than a simple breath of fresh air.
The apocalypse being over and amazons being (almost) extinct, Rodarte finally decided to leave Darwinism and horror behind to focus on nature, redwoods, interior design and their origins, that is Northern California.
Marc Jacobs went back to the 70s in his Spring/Summer 2011 collection; Rodarte sort of opted for the same decade, but mixed it with the principles of the Arts and Crafts Movement that refused artificial and ornate things, favouring an approach to simplicity in form.
This explains the trunk and wood prints – or rather wood panelling/pallet prints – in different tones such as dark brown, earth and cork, that turned into a recurring yet not extremely original theme if you think about Madeleine de Rauch’s wood print dresses from the 50s (View this photo).
Applied also to shoes that displayed in their carved wood and metal platforms a sort of Medieval derivation (which showed again a connection with the Arts and Crafts Movement’s interest in Medieval design, but were also somehow reminiscent of Alexander McQueen's last collection), the wood theme was more interesting when applied to skirt suits that seemed to be carved out of wood, yet at times it also looked rather autumnal, especially when matched with plaid shirts with qipao fastenings.
As much as they tried to get away from their first and successful trick of cleverly mixing different fabrics and textures together, Kate and Laura Mulleavy relapsed into their signature collage style, reinventing it a bit, especially in the blue and white designs that betrayed an Oriental inspiration derived from Ming porcelain vases (their shape was also reused in the skirt silhouettes).
In their quest for tailoring purity, the Mulleavy sisters experimented with rigidly sculptural peplum jackets that looked like modern reinterpretation of Dior's Bar suit, including also in their collection blouses sliced around the torso that left the skin exposed, jackets with cut-out shoulders, apron dresses and high-waisted trousers.
Yet not everything was as cozy as a wood panelled house, after all, once an Amazon, always an Amazon and a mix of tribalism and primitivism came back first in the dresses characterised by rigid slates of a sort of foamy material with a faux crocodile skin print, climaxing in the golden designs that evoked in their structure and breast plates the looks of Roman goddesses clad in bronze armours.
Could this be a hint to their next collection (or maybe an idea for the costumes of one of those Hollywood blockbusters about Roman history that throws historians into a pit of despair)?
In fact I suspect that being absorbed by the latter would actually benefit Rodarte and maybe inspire the girls to find more cohesive inspirations and tone down a bit their warrior moments.
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