Quick Fashion and Geometry Comparison (With Some Architecture and Set Design Thrown in)

Let's continue the Lina Bo Bardi's thread for another day and look at it in connection with geometry and fashion. To do so let's move from this picture showing an illustration of a dodecahedron designed by Bo Bardi. The wooden sculpture covered in brightly printed cloths decorated the entrance of the theatre during the show "Ubu – Folias Physicas, Pataphysicas e Musicaes" (1985), directed by Cacá Rosset with set and costume designed by Bo Bardi.

Readers of this site looked at uniform polyhedra and their application in fashion in previous posts. One of the applications we looked at in other posts actually referenced Preen's Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection.

Designers Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi from British label Preen moved once again from geometry for their new collection. This time, though, they also looked at architectural interiors, an inspiration that resurfaced here and there in their creations.

The S/S 2014 collection features designs characterised by a patchwork of geometries and graphic polyhedra on white, pink or blue backgrounds, at times combined with a delicate floral print.

In the duo's A/W 2011 collection dark shades and elegance prevailed, but for their S/S 2014 designs they favoured a sense of sporty dynamism that they injected in functional fitted dresses, folded skirts and anoraks in silver foil-looking tech fabrics. In some cases the geometrical figures reappeared not as prints on the fabrics, but quilted on shocking pink mini-dresses and skirts or were employed as motifs to create cut out elements along the hem of a skirt or a dress.

Though saleable, as a whole the collection didn't bring any desperately innovative elements in Preen's style, and the duo would have maybe managed to produce more original pieces if they had looked more at their "architectural interiors" inspiration or if they had remembered that geometry is a versatile subject (Lina Bo Bardi opted in this case for the dodecahedron since it's a more versatile figure compared for example to the icosahedron…) that can lead to more interesting experiments when it comes not just to prints and surface, but also to volumes, angles, vertices, planes and three-dimensionality.

As inspiration for further geometry-inspired designs I'm leaving you with this image (from the Met Museum archives) of a cute, futuristic and architectural geometric hat designed in the '80s by Krizia.