I have already briefly explored in a previous post about Prada’s S/S 11 collection, the meaning of striped fabrics and their connections with society's outcasts.
It actually looks like stripes will be rather fashionable for the next Spring season, as they appeared in different colours or in their more traditional black/white-white/blue combination on quite a few runways.
While going through my personal archive of images I found some pictures taken during Paris Fashion Week, chronicling the Spring/Summer 1986 season.
Most of the images I have regard the Issey Myake, Junko Shimada, Enrico Coveri, Sonia Rykiel and Yohji Yamamoto collections and mainly show designs in black and white, thin or thick, vertical or horizontal stripes.
It was interesting to find the same strong emphasis on black and white stripes in a few collections for the Spring/Summer 11 season presented during the last few days in Paris.
Who knows, maybe Junya Watanabe came across the same images I saved from those years or maybe he had the same period of time in mind when working on this collection (and on his S/S 11 menswear collection as well…).
It must be said, though, that, compared to the 80s, this presentation was much more colourful, but also slightly unsettling, with models in red, yellow, blue, green and violet wigs accessorised with straw hats and faces blanked out by masks kept in their place by a strange contraption the models held in their teeth.
Horizontal, vertical and zigzagging stripes were applied to everything, from long T-shirt dresses to trench coats, drop-crotch pants and tops, and to different materials, including jersey, linen and nylon.
While there seemed to be a marine derivation in the stripes matched with silk dresses with prints of assorted nautical motifs such as anchors, life buoys and compasses and some echoes of Coco Chanel’s costumes for Le Train Bleu in the striped leggings and drop-waisted dresses calling to mind bathing costumes and tennis uniforms, the mood was rather dark and mysterious with futuristic undertones in the see-through trench coats.
As a whole the collection was sporty though there was a sort of 80s derivation not only in the stripes, but also in the ample volumes around the shoulders and in the pants, though the best designs were the ones characterised by asymmetrical or deconstructed elements such as double vests or knots of fabric that created interesting movements in the silhouettes.
Queen of stripes Sonia Rykiel went for a colourful approach with knits and baggy jumpsuits in black and red/turquoise/nude stripes.
At the very end of the catwalk show a group of models walked down the runway clad in black and white designs that instantly reminded me of the images I have from the S/S 1986 season.
Maybe this is the right time to start taking out of the wardrobe those striped designs from the mid-80s you never departed from.
Come next Spring they will indeed be extremely fashionable once again.
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Lovely.
Posted by: jen | October 05, 2010 at 06:40 AM