Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

When Fashion Meets Cinema and Music: La Dolce Vita Souvenir

I must admit I get restless when I start working on a project, but I also grow sentimentally attached to projects I’m involved with.

After the main work on the “Italian Style on the Silver Screen” exhibition came to an end, I just felt there was some kind of other film and fashion connection that hadn’t been tackled in this event, the one with music.

Luckily Italian label Kutmusic came to my rescue and, inspired by the contents of the exhibition, we came up with a mini-album, “La Dolce Vita Souvenir”, a tribute to Federico Fellini’s film.

“Fashions passed him by without leaving a trace,” film critic Claudio Fava once stated about Fellini. The style of Fellini’s characters is indeed simply immortal, it leaves any temporal boundary behind, while words borrowed from his films – paparazzi, dolce vita, amarcord, vitelloni – are officially part of the Italian language.

The legendary shots of Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni in the Trevi Fountain changed forever the history of Italian cinema. The black satin dress donned by Ekberg was actually inspired by Jean Louis’ black satin strapless gown for Rita Hayworth in Gilda (the latter was based on the portrait of Mrs. X by John Singer Sargent).

The film caused a huge debate when it was first released and the case even arrived in the Parliament where conservative MPs asked to withdraw it from circulation as it offended the virtues and integrity of the respectable citizens of Rome. Audiences loved it though and Fellini’s film won the Golden Palm at Cannes and an Oscar for Best Costume Design.

The album features music by Nino Rota conducted by Franco Ferrara, Perez Prado's "Patricia" and "Why Wait", samples from the film, legendary track "Cadillac", later covered by Combustible Edison, and a previously unreleased track, Little Richard's "Ready Teddy" performed in the film by the Campanino and Adriano Celentano.

"La Dolce Vita Souvenir" is out now and available from Amazon. To celebrate the album release, Irenebrination will give away a free copy of the album to the first five readers who will drop me an email with "La Dolce Vita Souvenir" in the subject.

Special thanks go to the Kutmusic team who turned the project into reality in no time. To preview the album, click on the tracks on the following widget. Enjoy the music!

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Three Steps into the Past

"The Peroni  Collection - Italian Style on the Silver Screen" opened yesterday in London and with this post I would like to say thanks to all the people and friends who turned up.

Most of the visitors were intrigued by some of the shoes exhibited, so I'm publishing today on the blog a short interview that I did exclusively for the event with Silvia Dal Co'-Petrucci, grand-daughter of Alberto Dal Co' and manager of the family's company. 

The exhibition features three Dal Co' shoes, the famous paparazzo shoes with their slightly curved up point and heel featuring a small, toothed metal wheel; a silk satin slipper with pearls (both from 1953) and a red court shoe with Richelieu and reticella lace embroidery inserts (late ‘50s). The three shoes are perfect examples of Dal Co’s constant search for beauty, elegance and high quality.

What kind of memories and emotions do the paparazzo shoes bring back?
Silvia Dal Co': Seeing these shoes always brings back some strong emotions. My grandfather died when I was a young child, but, since in the early days of his shop he used to make by hand all his designs, I can almost detect his touch upon these iconic shoes. My grandfather loved spending time in his workshop, because that was his private universe in which he created his pieces, giving free rein to his imagination. The “paparazzo” shoes represent my grandfather, they are his signature.

All the Dal Co' shoes are very light, even the bejewelled ones with pearls: how do you manage to make them so light?
Silvia Dal Co': Lightness is the key to our shoes: if you compare one of our platform shoes with an ordinary platform shoe you find on the market, you will be surprised by the difference in their weight. We use very light materials and employ special techniques to assemble them. As a child these shoes reminded me a lot of princesses such as Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari and Farah Dibah Pahlavi. They called to mind fable-like atmospheres à la Cinderella.

Do you remember ever seeing any famous actresses in your family's shop?
Silvia Dal Co': Yes, I do. I remember for example Gina Lollobrigida who often seemed to opt for rather strong styles. One day, between the end of the ‘60s and the early ‘70s, she visited the shop and bought a pair of orange patent leather knee-high boots. They were the complete opposite of the delicate slippers decorated with pearls!

The red shoes with Richelieu lace remind me a lot of the shoes Brigitte Bardot is holding in one of the picture taken from the Dal Co' archive that we featured in the exhibition, don't you think so? 
Silvia Dal Co': Yes, that's correct. I would say they also remind me of the style Sophia Loren used to favour. They are classic court shoes characterised by essential silhouettes, clean lines and a stiletto heel. In my opinion they represent the epitome of elegance of a highly refined style. We recently recreated these shoes for our current collection. At the moment we are trying to relaunch this style, even though it's a bit difficult because customers are into strong and excessive looks that too often do not even allow you to walk gracefully and comfortably.

Are you working on any special projects at the moment?
Silvia Dal Co': A friend of mine brought back from Jaipur some wonderful sari borders and we are working out ways to incorporate them in our sandals. 

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The Peroni Collection – Italian Style on the Silver Screen (London leg)

A film is a powerful medium able to stir people’s imagination, but so is a catwalk show.

In Italy fashion entered the world of cinema through the creations of important designers and tailors, while costume designers involuntarily launched new trends by using particular materials, fabrics and accessories.

As the years passed, Italian directors showed a greater attention to detailed costumes and saw them as essential elements to highlight particular actions and moments in a film: the cut, folds and fabrics of a dress or a suit had to be perfect to give the actors an impeccable image on screen.

For fashion fans it became compulsory to get inspired by their idols: men copied Marcello Mastroianni’s elegance; women got their inspirations from Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale and Monica Vitti.

The exhibition "Peroni Collection – Italian Style on the Silver Screen", co-curated by Rankin and myself and opening in London on Wednesday, looks at iconic costumes born out of the fantasy of legendary directors in collaboration with their magnificent art directors, excellent costume designers and skilled artisans.

The exhibition sifts every image and photograph through the sieve of imagination and style, revealing how the cinematographic genius of many directors inspired the imagination of other artists and how film creativity rained down on fields of expression quite distant from those of cinema proving an inexhaustible source of aesthetic suggestions for the fashion industry.

"Peroni Collection – Italian Style on the Silver Screen analyses 60 years of films, trends and fashion, paying a tribute to those fashion maisons, tailoring houses, costume and fashion designers who contributed to create the magic of Italian cinema.

Among the films included there are also Vittorio De Sica's Ladri di Biciclette (Bycicle Thieves, 1948), Giuseppe De Santis' Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice, 1949), Michelangelo Antonioni's Cronaca di un Amore (Story of a Love Affair, 1950), Luchino Visconti's Bellissima (Beautiful, 1951), Pier Paolo Pasolini's Accattone (The Procurer, 1961), Federico Fellini's 8 ½ (1963), and Sergio Leone's C’era una volta il West (Once Upon a Time in the West, 1968).

The collection has been sourced from different historical archives including the Florence-based Ferragamo Museum and Archivio Storico Foto Locchi, the Archivio Storico Fernanda Gattinoni and the Archivo Storico del Cinema, with exclusive images from the Fondazione Micol Fontana chronicling the connection between the historical Italian house of the Sorelle Fontana and Ava Gardner (and in particular the friendship between one of the Fontana sisters, Micol, and Gardner).

The exhibition brings together over 50 images to tell the story of Italian style in celluloid from the past half-century of film-making and also features exclusive accessories, such as the legendary “paparazzo shoes” designed by shoemaker Alberto Dal Co’ in 1953, a selection of hats by Borsalino, the historical hat manufacturer founded by Giuseppe Borsalino in 1857 in Alessandria, and shoes from the Ferragamo's Creations line, reproducing the original footwear Salvatore Ferragamo created for Ava Gardner and Marilyn Monroe. 

"Peroni Collection – Italian Style on the Silver Screen" is at Proud Gallery, 161 King's Road, London, from 9th to 19th March 2011 (the private viewing event is tomorrow evening 6.30 pm-8.30 pm).

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From Federico's Giulietta to Sofia's Juliet

Since the “Peroni Collection – Italian Style on the Silver Screen” is kicking off in London on Wednesday (though tomorrow there is a private viewing evening), I have been going once again through some of the images featured in the event.

A few readers wrote me to say they really enjoyed the poster picture from Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits, 1965) by Federico Fellini (with costumes by Piero Gherardi). 

Women are the main protagonists of this story, in fact a feminine universe characterises Fellini’s entire ouvre: numerous and different women – mothers, wives, mistresses, nuns, vamps and prostitutes – appear in his films, representing projections of a desire as multiform as the male imagination can be.

In this film the world of burlesque and circus - represented by Sandra Milo (the actress in yellow in the first image in this post) starring as Iris, Suzy and Fanny - clashes with that spectacle called “pure cinema”. Like a designer at a catwalk show, Fellini presents his imaginary women clad in fashionable and rich costumes born out of fantasy and wonder.

“The ambition of this film is to restore to woman her true independence, an unquestionable and inalienable dignity of her own,” Fellini stated in an interview about Juliet of the Spirits.

This is the same impulse that drives contemporary fashion designers to keep on creating new designs and collections that can empower women. 

Florence-born but New York-based fashion designer Sofia Sizzi recently launched her own label, called Giulietta and inspired by Fellini's film.

Born in Florence, Sizzi first worked for Gucci, then moved to New York where she collaborated with Donna Karan and Calvin Klein.

While in her designs there is also a sort of Fellinesque obsession with church and ecclesiastical clothes (see her black dress with white collar and her capes - View this photo) a bit reminiscent of the "pretino" dresses, her Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection also includes a red chiffon dress that references one of the costumes donned by Giulietta Masina in Fellini's film.

Masina's dress was actually shorter than Sizzi's, but it's interesting to see that stylish and original costumes from '60s film still inspire contemporary designers. I doubt that any of the contemporary films that currently boast any kind of fashion and style connections will turn into an inspiration in fifty years' time. 

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Sua Culpa, Sua Maxima Culpa: Dior A/W 11

Whoever got the idea of bringing the white-coated seamstresses and tailors of Dior’s ateliers to take the final bow at yesterday’s catwalk show definitely did a very sensible thing, handling a difficult catwalk show rather well.

After all, the people from the atelier team are the ones who designers should be thanking since, without them, their vision wouldn’t exist. Yet they rarely get the attention they deserve.

Take the Galliano incident: in the last few days the fashion world was divided between outraged people and superficial fashionistas who couldn’t care less because having their picture taken while wearing a perfectly matching outfit at Paris Fashion Week seemed much more important than expressing their opinion about Galliano's Nazi sympathies.

When the House of Dior suspended Galliano there were even some people who wondered if suspending someone on allegation was hasty.

Yet while we were accusing, defending or just not simply caring, not many of us really thought about the stress the ordinary people working behind the scenes at the House of Dior were actually going.

Since the early beginning of the French fashion scenes, what truly made the difference between the French maisons and other fashion houses were the skilled hands of the artisans working for them, too often completely forgotten in the last few years to give more space to flamboyant designers with a magnetic charisma.  

Now things seem to have reversed. Before the show started, Dior’s chief executive Sidney Toledano spoke about the recent events, stating “What has happened over the last week has been a terrible and wrenching ordeal for us all. It has been deeply painful to see the Dior name associated with the disgraceful statements attributed to its designer, however brilliant he may be. Such statements are intolerable because of our collective duty to never forget the Holocaust and its victims, and because of the respect for human dignity that is owed to each person and to all peoples.”

Toledano also remembered the audience how Dior’s own sister was deported to Buchenwald and added that the heart of Dior – that is the teams, studios, seamstresses and craftsmen – beats unseen.

The catwalk show then opened with long billowing capes and hooded cloaks matched with cropped leather jackets and velvet breeches, accessorised with floppy felt hats and leather bags and worn with over-the-knee platform laced-up boots, strong daywear that mixed in one ensemble luxurious materials such as cashmere, brocade, fur and velvet.

Frilly skirts, silk bloomers decorated with bows at the hips, short and romantic chiffon, lace and tulle dresses trimmed with fox and mink fur and transparent evening gowns decorated with delicate embroideries and inspired by lingerie followed.

Sober but rich shades such as bordeaux, dark green, brown and teal prevailed in the daywear, while pastel colours were favoured in the ethereal and romantic looks that – it must be said – were definitely less theatrical and original than the ensembles from the first part of the catwalk show.

So what will happen in Dior’s future now? Rumours are rife at the moment and the designer lottery is officially open.

I honestly wish the House of Dior wouldn’t be run by just one flamboyant designer, but by a team of skilled seamstresses and tailors, by people who wouldn’t end up on rehab for alcohol or drugs, who didn’t crack up along the way for pressures, money issues, elitism and other idiotic behaviours.

Sure, being a fashion designer is not easy, the pressures are enormous, but it’s not as difficult as being on the frontline in A&E, working as a surgeon in a war zone or seeing people dying in third world countries because basic medicines or food are not available.

As much as naïve as this may sound, going back to quality without focusing on one person could save Dior’s reputation. Who knows, maybe the atelier of the future may end up being a hotbed for talented and skilled hardworking people, with fewer celebrities and a collective vision (and, Mr Toledano, it would even be cheaper...).

Guess if these seamstresses and tailors have been “carrying on the values and visions of Monsieur Dior,” as Toledano said, Dior himself would probably approve such a choice.

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A True “Anatomy of Change”?

The Autumn/Winter 2011-12 Paris Fashion Week may end up being remembered as the season that changed the face of fashion not for the designs included in the shows, but for some major and minor earthquakes that took place at some of the main fashion houses. 

Dior first suspended Galliano after his anti-Semitic remarks, then fired him after a video circulating on the Internet showed a previous incident in which he launched into a drunk Hitler-loving rant in a bar.

In the meantime, Balmain's Christophe Decarnin had a nervous breakdown and gossips spread about Riccardo Tisci replacing Galliano at Dior, Haider Ackermann moving to Givenchy, and Hedi Slimane going to Yves Saint Laurent with Carine Roitfeld consulting (so this was what she had in mind when she left French Vogue...)

Maybe stylist, fashion editor and Mugler Creative Director Nicola Formichetti had a crystal ball when he entitled his first womenswear collection for Mugler “Anatomy of Change”.

Though you wonder if Formichetti's crystal ball can also predict the future of the brand he is directing at the moment.

His long-awaited collection created in collaboration with designer Sébastien Peigné and showcased with the help of Lady Gaga as music director, opened with suits characterised by sculpted silhouettes that called back to mind Mugler’s strong peaked shoulders from the ‘80s.

Then the mood changed, verging towards the sensual with revealing sheer tops and body-suits, one-shoulder jackets, deconstructed pieces, rigid plastic armours, corsets and latex bras and trousers.

Most of the looks – in a palette comprising black, white, beige and blue – were matched with precarious heels and with Rein Vollenga’s wearable sculptures.

Yet, after Lady Gaga modelled two outfits, sashaying down the runway, smoking, clawing at the air and clutching the church columns that flanked the runway in a long blonde wig, a sheer body suit and impossibly high (read 60 cm) heelless shoes, the attention shifted from the clothes to her, turning the catwalk show into a fun party.

Yet if you reversed the attention to the clothes and didn't get distracted by the
Keith Flint-like double-mohican hairstyle (View this photo) you distinctively realised that, while Mugler’s woman was a sort of sensual android, the fashion house's new woman is a post-human android that doesn’t seem to have the deeply disturbing yet irresistible charm of Mugler’s robots or the elegance of experimental replicants à la Rachael out of Blade Runner.

So while the womenswear collection was spared the oppressive dark moods and death references of the menswear collection (though Rick Genest and his scary tattoos reappeared once again on this runway…), it brought with it quite a few doubts.

Were these garments created with the sole purpose of making stylists/pop stars and bizarre celebrities happy?

There aren’t indeed too many contexts in which an ordinary woman could wear these pieces that are allegedly meant to empower you and make you feel fierce.  

Besides, apart from the fact that some materials didn't look exactly luxurious, proper tailors will tell you the trousers were badly cut.

There is something that deeply worries me about all this Mugler-Formichetti-Gaga shenanigan, the influence that all this is having on young fashion design students and on contemporary designers as well.

The former are probably thinking now that the only thing they will have to do in life is dress a pop icon to make sure they can set up a fashion label; the latter are increasingly getting concerned about dressing Lady Gaga (think about Francesco Scognamiglio), slightly forgetting there are millions of ordinary women out there who may need a reasonably functional yet striking wardrobe.

Formichetti was honest, though, and stated that this collection is not about the clothes. Yet, you could argue, a fashion house must be at some point about the clothes, because it is supposed to be selling clothes apart from accessories and fragrances.

If a fashion brand is not about saleable items, but it’s about a vision, a dream or an idea, it turns into a financially undesirable business and, at some point, it collapses.

Gaga claimed she has already bought the collection, but will more customers – among them ordinary women – follow her and will the collection also feature more wearable pieces like sensible suits once it will be in the shops?

Besides, how long will it work using Lady Gaga as an advertising board and as a distraction from the clothes?

The doubts remain. In the meantime if, like me, you’re a sensible grown up, you’re past 27 and working passionately in the fashion industry, you may as well find yourself another job.

As stated at the beginning of this post, the fashion industry is going like Mugler’s woman through some major changes.

Even in the last 48 hours fashion has dramatically mutated, turning into a strange creature that walks in shoes that aren’t definitely made for walking and into a place where styling is more important than tailoring and artisans are less important than pop stars.

If this is the trendy, edgy, funky and irresistible fashion scene of the future, maybe buying a ticket out of it wouldn’t be an option, but a total relief.

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Freeing the Body: Jeanloup Sieff

Among the most iconic photographs shot by French photographer Jeanloup Sieff (1933–2000) there are images of a young Yves Saint Laurent in the nude for his men’s fragrance campaign and of director Alfred Hitchcock posing around the legendary Psycho house with model Ina Balke.

These pictures are now being rediscovered in a recently opened exhibition at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, curated by Anna Tellgren.

Born in Paris to parents of Polish origin, Sieff started taking his first pictures as a teenager, in 1947, abandoning his passion for cinema, first attending the Vaugirard School of Photography in Paris and then moving to the Vevey School in Switzerland. He soon became a freelance reporter, and, in 1958, joined the Magnum Agency.

In the mid-‘50s he started working for various magazines, including Esquire, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, and moved to New York in 1961.

He returned to Paris five years later to work for Jardin des Modes, and also engaged in commercial photography, including promotion campaigns for Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Carel. 

Sieff’s fashion shoots were particularly beautiful since the models featured in them turned into iconic protagonists of sensual and intriguing stories told in black and white.

Sieff also took unusual portraits of writers, actors and actresses, becoming famous for his images of dancers such as Claire Motte, Rudolf Nureyev and Carolyn Carlson.

Fascinated by their long and lean bodies, Sieff tried to capture with his camera the daily struggles dancers go through at different stages of preparation.

How long have you been researching for this exhibition?
Anna Tellgren: This is something I have wanted to do for a long time and I actually took the first contact with The Estate of Jeanloup Sieff two years ago. The photographs included in the exhibition are presented in themes and the event also features one image from Sieff’s advertising campaigns, the famous nude portrait of Yves Saint Laurent from 1971 taken for the designer’s eau de toilette.
 
Which is your favourite photograph featured in the exhibition and why?
Anna Tellgren: It’s impossible to mention just one! I think his series featuring Carolyn Carlson (1974) is fantastic, since it’s beautiful and scary at the same time. But I also like very much his “Hand on hip” (1964) and all his landscapes.

Is there anything about Sieff you discovered that you didn't know while you were researching for this exhibition?
Anna Tellgren: That he was such a good writer and also his connections and friendship with an older generation of French photographers such as Robert Doisneau and Jacques-Henri Lartigue.

How important is Sieff’s work in today's perspective and in which ways can his work inspire contemporary fashion designers, stylists and photographers?
Anna Tellgren: He’s incredibly important: he had humour and his images are always elegant and interesting. You can find his style in everything he worked on.

What do you think visitors who will come and see this exhibition will bring back home?
Anna Tellgren: I hope they will discover a photographer and an artist and be inspired by his work!

Will there be any workshops connected with this event at the museum and exploring photography, fashion and dance or analysing the work of his wife Barbara and his daughter Sonia?
Anna Tellgren: We will have guided tours – and also a conversation where we have invited a fashion journalist and a photographer who will discuss together with me Sieff’s work in connection with art and fashion.

“Jeanloup Sieff” is at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet until 22nd May 2011.

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Fantastic Plastic?

The possibilities offered by plastic and its applications in fashion always fascinated me.

Synthetic plastic materials currently remain among the favourite ones of many designers who employ them not only for accessories such as necklaces, earrings and bangles, but also to add a touch of colour or edgy details to their designs.

I mentioned in yesterday’s post for example the celluloid jabots Marc Jacobs incorporated in the lace dresses from his Autumn/Winter 2011 collection (a trick already employed by Schiaparelli actually...).

During London Fashion Week there were interesting applications of synthetic materials in Holly Fulton’s collection.

The optimistic message behind Fulton’s new designs arrived first on the speakers through Adriano Celentano’s 1972 single “Prisencolinensinainciusol”.

So, while the catchy rhythms of the track were playing in the background it was just impossible not to enjoy the tweeds in acid colours decorated with beaded trims, trousers with appliquéd spikes and Art Deco details creating intricate motifs on the dresses.

Fulton’s trademark skyscrapers reappeared on shirts, coats and ankle-length dresses, though this time there were some playful elements added such as lips sipping from plastic pearly straws through the roof of the Empire State building, manicured Auntie Mame-like hands holding smoking guns and boleros covered in plastic pearls matched with extremely long and streamlined lip print skirts that called to mind the verticality of skyscrapers.  

Fulton’s jewels and accessories integrating Swarovski elements and Perspex components and Noel Stewart’s leather hats completed the looks in an elegant and stylish way.

In the first part of his collection Christopher Kane moved instead from classic crocheted squares using them to create geometrical motifs in navy and black on tops and skirts or printed them on leather designs.

Inspiration then moved on with a series of simple and basic crepe and cashmere dresses decorated with plastic strips.

Trapped inside them, coloured vegetable oil and glycerine liquids in bright orange, red, green and blue moved and bubbled, calling to mind two of the main inspirations for the collection, lava lamps and the plastic pencil cases and bags with liquids encased inside that many of us found absolutely irresistible as kids in the ‘80s.

Plastic strips were used to decorate plunging necklines and frame veiled breasts, the liquids encased inside them creating waves of bright colour.

The traditional craft element that opened the collection contrasted with the modern plastic trims, creating a cosy domestic Vs modern plastic dichotomy, though the plastic elements made you wonder why Kane and inseparable sister Tammy didn’t set onto a wider research if they were on the lookout for a material that had never been used before.

Indeed, while the liquid plastic effect was fun and used at its best to create alien-like designs with armoured plastic bodices or to give a further touch of colour to dresses covered in iridescent sequins, this trick wasn't entirely convincing.

It's indeed easy to wonder what will happen once these dresses (or Marc Jacobs' latex designs...) will make the transition from catwalk show to retailer floor and if it will be right to consider high end a product so reminiscent of cheap plastic bags from 25 years ago à la Fiorucci.

Kane didn’t seem to disappoint the expectations of most fashion critics at London Fashion Week, yet, while his maestro Gianni Versace always managed to walk on a tightrope suspended between the good and the kitsch, balancing these two aspects pretty well in his designs, in this collection Kane seemed to be perilously walking on a tightrope suspended between the good and the cheap. Maybe carrying out further researchers into the possibilities plastic can offer wouldn't have hurt Kane.  

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Spots, Dots and Bellyaches: David Koma, Louise Gray and Marc Jacobs A/W 2011

Mention polka dots to any genuine contemporary art lover and they will start enthusing about Yayoi Kusama's iconic spots.

The Japanese artist has indeed been covering walls, floors, canvases and objects in polka dots since the ‘50s, basing her work on repetition and accumulation, turning the "infinity nets" she would see in her hallucinations and daydreams into mesmerising and colourful patterns.

Kusama claimed in an interview that "polka dots are a way to infinity" and I've actually been pondering about her words, wondering if this is what fashion designers who rediscovered polka dots in their Autumn/Winter 2011 collections were looking for, infinity.

Leaving behind the Italian Futuristi, Georgian-born David Koma moved in his new collection from Kusama’s spots.

Playing like Kusama on repetition, Koma replicated dots in prints, as laser cut holes perforating his capes and skirts and as appliquéd patent leather discs and decorative balls of fox fur in black, green or yellow.

The collection started on a black and nude palette but then progressed towards colours with sparkles of orange, fuchsia, green and yellow appearing through the holes.

The second part of the collection also included designs featuring prints by Russian photographer Oleg Dou.

The images, taken from Dou’s “Naked Faces” project, had the same hallucinatory quality of Kusama’s fields of acrylic polka dots and of her painted nets describing pseudo-dots in negative spaces, and added a surreal element to Koma's dresses.

Louise Gray’s collections usually feature the sort of designs that may give a heart attack to tailoring purists and minimalists.

Different colours, patterns, textures and materials clash and combine in one design, symbolising a certain over the top joyful exuberance that may not be everybody’s cup.

For the Autumn/Winter season Gray tried to restrain herself a bit, mainly focusing on spots and checks.

Yet while she restrained herself for what regarded the patterns, she didn’t seem to set herself any limits when it came to the actual numbers of spots and checks to use.

The collection, very aptly entitled “Up Your Look”, featured indeed colourful voluminous jumpers, tartan jackets covered in electric blue or gold dots, tartan prints mixed with bright checks and multi-coloured ruches sculpted out of check fabric.

All the designs were accessorised with fun jewellery pieces such as whistles for earrings and matched with headpieces by Nasir Mazhar and polka dot wellington heeled boots by Nicholas Kirkwood at Pollini.

Disciplined was instead the keyword to Marc Jacob’s Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection.

For the next Autumnal season the designer left behind his Spring/Summer 2011 fluid designs inspired by the ‘70s to look at fitted silhouettes.

Rigid and severe lines were created employing synthetic materials such as Lurex, latex and cellophane, though irony and a playful mood were added by sprinkling such materials with polka dots.

Working with latex designers House of Harlot, Jacobs came up with tops, dresses and skirts covered in latex scales that looked like sequins, matched with Stephen Jones’ vinyl berets with organza chin straps decorated with spots and buttons.

Polka dots were the main theme: they appeared in different sizes and materials, in print and appliquéd on fabric; they spread like a virus on tights, skirts, blouses and pony skin sweaters; they decorated furry bags and leather bi-coloured gloves and their shape was also evoked by the round flaps of the pockets and the curved silhouette of the jackets.

Jacobs played a lot with contrasts as well, integrating cellophane jabots in guipure lace dresses with a Victorian cut but a dominatrix edge.

The palette – focusing on burgundy, maroon, dark green, blue and black – contrasted with the lightness of some of the materials used.

In this collection Jacobs essentially reinvented some staples of the American wardrobe, revisiting bomber jackets and pencil skirts, mixing rubber, stiff wool, cashmere, film, felt, double-face crepe, faux and real fur, manipulating fabric and adding three-dimensional dots and spots on cropped jackets, shifts and capes.

The mood was playful and ironic, though you wonder what will happen once the collection will be on sale and if latex and other assorted synthetic materials will definitely become a trend come next Autumn (though the latex trend was already anticipated by other designers - Nicole Farhi’s S/S 2011 collection also included for example latex pieces in collaboration with House of Harlot).

What’s for sure though is that hallucinatory and disturbing polka dots are here to stay - well, at least until next Winter.

In the meantime, you can learn more about Kusama in "Princess of Polka Dots", a work-in-progress documentary directed by Heather Lenz.

 

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