There is an entire generation of crafty women out there who used to make clothes for their dolls when they were kids and who wish they had had bits and pieces of neoprene fabric/sheets at the time to quickly create made-to-measure wardrobes for their dolls. While neoprene is difficult to sew, it is easy to glue and, though it's not good for draped or pleated effects, it can be easily used even by a child to mould a dress, top or skirt on a doll.
Hailed as a futuristic fabric, in the hands of a young generation of designers, neoprene has turned into the fabric of the unskilled: since it is more rigid than organic fabrics, you won't need complicated patterns to cut out a neoprene garment. If you check out the collections featuring neoprene garments, you will see the same rounded and cocooning shapes and sculpted silhouettes, since it is the thickness of this material that dictates the shapes. This is for example the case with the collection of a young designer, Simon Porte Jacquemus, showcased on the opening day of Paris Fashion Week.
Praised for his "simplicity" that won him fans and the favour of hip stockists, Jacquemus creates very basic and at times stark silhouettes. For his A/W 2014 collection the designer gave his guests white smocks with splotches of colour and asked them to put them on. The main point of his request was making them look all the same, erasing any possible social class difference (a recurrent theme in his creations). Simplicity and uniformity reflected not only in the audience but throughout the collection that was based on badly drawn circles that looked as if they had been made by a child.
Appliqued on tops, pencil skirts and coats, the circles often looked more like the imperfect ovals in Alexander Calder's mobiles or like the primitive pebble-like shapes you get on downloadable sheets explaining kids how to build a Calder mobile.
The most puzzling thing about this collection apart from the avoidable repetitions, though, was not this vague connection with Calder's mobiles (more vivid maybe in the final navy coats with a grey sleeve, a series of strips on one sleeve, and an oval yellow pocket), but the exaggerated and oversized shapes and volumes of some of the neoprene jackets or the awkward and clownish shoulder line of some of the tops that seemed to constrict the models rather than liberating them.
Yes, most times fashion is terribly uncomfortable, but functionality is one of the main requirements to produce great and timeless garments and, while neoprene may be the fabric of the future, many young designers should also remember that it has many drawbacks that should be taken into consideration. It can't indeed stay folded for a long time, since it easily develops permanent creases if put under too much stress, and it's also an environmentally harmful material, so it would be better to avoid overusing it. And while it's perfectly fine to be excited about the young energetic vibes currently electrifying the Parisian fashion scene, you feel like hoping that the fashion scene will soon be in the hands of young designers with a better knowledge of of fabrics.
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