"Write about what you know" is one of the (most common and maybe most misunderstood) advices given to those ones who harbour in their hearts the dream of becoming a novelist. Yet, you may argue, this suggestion may be applied also to other fields and disciplines, such as fashion.
Scottish designer Christopher Kane has always tried to follow this mantra, moving from his own background, personal experiences and memories and reinventing these elements in his creations.
For his Resort 2018 collection Kane revamped the architectural, interior design, art and textile history of his country, but did so by turning to some pictures – the photographs portraying Charles Rennie Mackintosh, his wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, her sister Frances and Frances' husband Herbert Macnair (also known as The Glasgow Four) with their friends Katherine Cameron, Janet Aitken, Agnes Raeburn, Jessie and John Keppie.
Part of the archive and collection of the Glasgow School of Art, these pictures from the 1890s show an early incarnation of the creative minds that came to be known as The Immortals.
The images helped Kane avoiding to fall into the most common traps that have turned the Mackintosh heritage into a tourist business churning out jewellery and tea towels with decorative elements borrowed from his architectures and drawings and from Macdonald's gesso panels.
All the people in "The Immortals" pictures wear clothes in Edwardian styles characterised by flounces and puffed sleeves. Kane therefore came up with romantically feminine frills and rouches, marabou feathers and constructions of lace. One black and white photograph of Margaret Macdonald taken in 1901 may have also inspired a frilly black lace number donned by a model with a vaguely Pre-Raphaelite hairstyle.
Appliqued embroideries of tulips were probably lifted from Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald's drawings of abstract flowers, while the most literal element borrowed from Mackintosh was the trademark grid-pattern, transformed into a top with a matching light coat, a skirt or a dress. In the latter the grid was covered in bugle beads and decorated with 3D sequin roses evoking the trademark "Glasgow Rose" adapted from Aubrey Beardsley and widely employed within the Glasgow Style design.
The grid motif evoked memories of the chairs in the Willow Tearooms in Glasgow, but also the design for the menu card for Catherine Cranston's The White Cockade restaurant (at the Glasgow International Exhibition, 1911).
The grid with roses may also be a reference to Frances Macdonald MacNair's watercolour "A Paradox", in the same way as some of her delicate symbolist artworks like "Bows, Beads and Birds" may have helped Kane getting in the mood for this collection.
The main link between Mackintosh/Macdonald and this collection remains the set for the lookbook: Kane was indeed allowed to shoot the images in the grounds of Hill House, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald, and built for the publishing magnate Walter Blackie, who had been introduced to the architect by his art director Talwin Morris.
Located in upper Helensburgh, around 20 miles from Glasgow, and completed in 1904, the house speaks a new modernist language thanks to its asymmetrical features.
The house's facade is plain but architecturally striking and in the images from the lookbook it creates a contrast with some of the more elaborate and frilly designs by Kane.
The interior design is characterised by white walls, stencilled pink flowers and the elegant furniture for which Mackintosh was well known.
Kane added more references to his personal heritage in the collection: the Royal Banner of the Royal Arms of Scotland was replicated on a sweater; Mickey Mouse dressed in a kilt and tam o' shanter cap appeared on a casual top and the Royal Stewart tartan was employed for a mini-kilt and bag.
The past of his country was also combined with the designer's own background: memories of Kane's mother working as a cleaner inspired smock-like gingham designs and patent shoes and bags with decorative foam inserts (already seen in the A/W 2017 collection).
Kane is definitely not the first (and won't be the last…) designer to look at Glaswegian art and architecture for a fashion collection: as you may remember, Issey Miyake's A/W 2015-16 menswear collection moved from Charles Rennie Mackintosh, though it did so in a more literal way.
The interesting thing here is that Kane did not use his architectural references in a literal way and did not appropriate symbols, forms and shapes, but reworked them or rethought the style of the Glasgow Four.
Being forward-thinking, for most of their lives the Glasgow Four lived as outsiders in Scotland (their style was derisively referred to as "The Spook School" because of the ghostly figures they created that were mainly influenced by Celtic imagery), though their work became very influential in the art and design scene of other countries. So, who knows, maybe Kane was also thinking at this aspect of their lives and at his own life and career.
Wondering who will be Christopher Kane's next Scottish inspiration? We certainly don't know for sure, but we're betting on Margaret Morris.
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