In the previous post we looked at perfect geometries and at the impact they have in architecture. We mentioned in particular the circle and the square in connection with Roman architect Vitruvius and with Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.
Though rigorous, such simple shapes can be employed to create wonderful and playful effects in art and in fashion as well, as proved by the latest collection by Nina Donis. The Russian-Cypriot design duo takes us indeed on a minimalist walk through basic yet timeless geometries for its S/S 21 collection. 
The moodboard for this collection is a typical Nina Donis collage of creative references: uniforms and in particular PPE are up there, after all personal protective equipment has been one of the protagonists of the last year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, yet this reference is filtered through cinema, literature and art.
Nina Neretina and Donis Pouppis combined indeed the medical uniform with the Joker dressed up as a nurse in the 2008 Batman movie "The Dark Knight" by Christopher Nolan, then re-read George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, and gave these influences a final twist, adding references to naval flags, navy and scout's uniforms, and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense signs. 
The result is a functional and practical collection, with dresses, shirts, pants and light coats that at times retain the minimalism of Russian Constructivism and of Varvara Stepanova's sports clothing, but reinterpreted also via art through references to Dutch painter and ceramicist Bart van der Leck (1876-1958).
A founder of the De Stijl art movement with Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian (but probably the least known of the De Stijl artists…), Bart van der Leck's works are characterised by abstract and colourful shapes. 
Van der Leck started creating basic shapes in primary colours in 1916 in a community of artists in Laren where he met Piet Mondrian and where he began producing abstract compositions that featured simple forms in primary colours on monochromatic backgrounds.
Mondrian (who at the time mainly painted in gray and pastel tones) was influenced by the use of primary colours in Van der Leck's art.
Van der Leck also employed a method that he called "doorbeelding" (an untranslatable word that can be interpreted as 'decomposition', 'deconstruction', intended as a 'subtraction'). Starting with a figurative sketch – for example, of a person or an animal – he gradually reduced it to geometrical shapes that still retained the signature elements of that scene.
Besides, Van der Leck kept his geometrical compositions as open as possible, while Mondrian employed lines that linked and framed the various shapes together.
Nina Donis kept Van Der Leck's open geometric figures, letting them run free on their uniforms, forming squares and rectangles on cotton dresses, shirts and pants, or allowing them to expand onto a pocket, spill into the back of a dress and colour in a section of a light trench coat.
In a way, you could argue this is more playful than Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian dress: the latter remains iconic, modern and practical, but it looks more rigid compared to these designs.
These clothes make you want to paint, run outside, go to the beach or ride a bicycle, things we may have forgotten during this past year, in between long months of lockdown and strenuous days of mental breakdowns. 
Through Van der Leck this collection also gains an architectural and graphic design connection: in the '20s and '30s Van der Leck applied his art to architecture and interior design and in particular to textiles, rugs and ceramic pieces (check one of the simplest, yet iconic design by Van der Leck such as one of his double faced rugs from 1929-1935 and you will easily spot the connection with Nina Donis' collection View this photo). 
In 1919-1920 he created the interior design for St Hubertus Hunting Lodge, in the Hoge Veluwe estate and, in 1930, he was commissioned by Jo de Leeuw, owner of the prestigious Dutch department store Metz & Co. to design interiors, window packaging, branding and advertising.
For these print materials Van der Leck developed a rectilinear, geometrically constructed alphabet, echoed in the colour-coded geometrical figures integrated by Nina Donis in their designs. 
Through his art and his use of colours as light, Van der Leck wanted to work for the people and create a new art for a new society. Now, clothes may not change the world and radically transform and renew society. 
Yet, we could employ the simplicity of De Stijl's iconic red, yellow and blue palette and these minimalist shapes as a symbolical way to return to normality for the next Spring/Summer season and hopefully rediscover the genuine joys of life, of colourful abstractions and timeless geometries.
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