There is something surreally disquieting in the digital illustrations of Italian artist Daria Petrilli. Sometimes her images portray imaginary women whose clothes seem carved out of sublime natural landscapes; at others her pallid or pondering muses sprout birds from their hair and wings from their bodies.
In some illustrations Petrilli's women pose in dreamlike vignettes with exotic animals depicted in vivid colours that contrast with the dull shades of their dresses or with the bleak environments surrounding them.
Catalan designer Josep Font combined Petrilli's dark and mysterious yet tender visions with Fritz Lang's streamline moderne moods and silhouettes from Metropolis in his A/W 2016 collection for Delpozo.
Though these two inspirations may sound terribly different one from the other, the final results actually worked pretty well.
Font has a penchant for darkly fantastical creations and well-structured dresses and coats that derive their shapes and silhouettes from architecture (this was actually his first career), so he infused balanced moods taken from Petrilli's illustrations and from Lang's films in a coherent way in his new designs.
His sad looking and ethereal models sprouting a riot of 3-D multi-coloured appliqued floral paillettes from their nude, pink or green opera gloves and walking among a bright and vivid set, looked a bit like Petrilli's uncanny and ethereal muses.
In one illustration by Petrilli, a woman who looks a bit like Louise Brooks opens her coat to let two wild horses gallop out of its folds; it is easy to wonder if the voluminous coats in this collection protect fantastic creatures or maybe hide the wings of the wearer.
Font also tried to channel the depth in Petrilli's images via three-dimensional elements and effects including appliqued details and two-tone knits.
The designer didn't borrow from Metropolis its dark and urban dystopian sets and moods, but he was inspired by the sensual yet rigid forms of robotic gynoid Maria that were reinterpreted as ample coats with large and molded sleeves formed from softly curved shoulders, as pannier-like skirts,or as dresses characterised by silvery surfaces and chrome-like miniskirts.
Other robotic elements included a stiff bustier with a structured waist, a top with bra-like cups and a metallic wool skirt that stood straight off of the hips, but that retained a sense of dynamism and movement thanks to the pleats that characterised it.
Further highlights included tailored suits and well-designed pants; marble-like pink and black speckled coats, structured vests and canary yellow or pink trousers (references to the colours of Petrilli's exotic birds?), while expect to see on the red carpet an embroidered sleeveless blouse matched with a pair of metallic trousers covered with a red chiffon skirt.
Soft geometries prevailed especially for what regaded the shoulder area and the arms: Font played with puffed, rounded, cropped or bell sleeves, integrated cutout motifs in his designs and sculpted giant shoulder bows on oversized capes; he came up with voluminous coats or played with the construction of some of the coats to create optical illusions (the oepning number could be a wrap coat with a large obi-like belt or a strapless thick wool dress donned on top of a jacket).
As a whole the collection presented a disquieting idea of beauty without the Gothic tones seen on Rodarte's runway. Font may favour brighter colours than Rodarte, but his palette hides disturbing sub-tones à la Tales of Hoffmann.
There is actually one main difference between Font and many other contemporary designers that showcased at New York Fashion Week: he surely has a knowledge of fabrics. The emphasis on dry wool crepe allowed him indeed to play with well-structured silhouettes which he enriched with couture-like embellishments.
There is one main question, though, about these designs: the offer was wide, as it included both day and evening wear, but you seriously wonder how they will manage to translate Font's passion for craftsmanship and this effortless mix of the surreal and the romantic with the futuristic into ready-to-wear pieces.
You get indeed the feeling that Font's architecturally dramatic and modern collections playing on exaggerated volumes would suit much better to the Haute Couture world and to houses like Dior or Balenciaga than those ones produced by other uber cool designers who have been hyped up and favoured by the media so far.
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