During London Fashion Week we saw food logos appearing on bags, and the trend continued on the Milanese runways with gowns printed with images of candies and sweets packagings. Paris didn't escape the sugar rush: Manish Arora's collection was indeed a triumph of sweet delicacies.
Candies, cupcakes, ice creams, lollipops and candy cane-evoking red and white stripes appeared on tops, skirts, dresses and socks. Multi-coloured sneakers with thick soles called to mind layered slices of cakes and hats evoked pieces of candied fruits or were decorated with plastic jelly beans and doughnut-shaped beads; cherry-topped furry headdresses also made an appearance. It was a triumph of eye-catching colours, crazy prints and fun accessories.
Yet, rather than provoking a sugar overdose the collection gave you a strong sense of déjà vu, as if you had seen it all somewhere, though not on a runway.
In fact, if you thought about it, you had probably seen it somewhere - on the big screen. Those bright colours, vivid nuances and candy madness called to mind the digital world of the fictitious Sugar Rush videogame as seen in Disney's Wreck-It Ralph.
At times Arora seemed indeed to be channelling into some of his models the look of Vanellope von Schweetz (candy sprinkled hairstyle included); at others, random Sugar Rush racers including the detestable all pink Taffyta Muttonfudge.
There were maybe hints at the rave culture (ah, if only we had had flashing LED lights on sneakers and handbags in the Second Summer of Love...), but the sporty energetic looks also pointed at the cart racers in Wreck-It Ralph.
For a change the second part of the collection introduced a sort of ethnic theme: there were indeed references to traditional costumes including Peruvian circle skirts (or were those upside down cupcakes?), Chinese, Indian and Russian costumes (or were the snowy references hinting at Adorabeezle Winterpop, the racing and skiing fanatic riding the sugar-covered slopes of Sugar Rush?).
Those strange chicken-like furry/feathery headdresses sitting on the heads of the models also called to mind Ching, the best friend of Pucca, and her magic-egg laying chicken Won sitting on her head.
You can clearly see how such an eye-catching collection works extremely well on the runway, on the Internet and on the social networks, and how a basic shirt or a bag in techno fabric and hyper-real prints could easily lure consumers, but you honestly wonder how many grown up women would like to go around as Taffyta Muttonfudge, Candlehead, Rancis Fluggerbutter, Snowanna Rainbeau and Crumbelina DiCaramello.
Though fun and optimistic, the main inspiration was indeed a bit too literal, and maximalistic, verging towards Katy Perry's kitsch "Candyfornia" (View this photo) or giving the impression you had just stepped into Will Cotton’s paintings showing imaginary cotton candy/liquid caramel landscapes and candy stick forests.
Sure, this is a collection aimed at a young audience, but most women (even young ones...) don't have an exterior of polished peppermint or strawberry cream. The extreme saccharine levels of the collection also tend to point towards childhood, almost hinting that women are cute if clad in marzipan-like layers of fabrics.
Research-wise there is nothing new here, no innovations in fabrics or textures, but just a sugar overdose. Funnily enough, though, while till last year animation films seemed to look at fashion for the outfits of the main characters, now it's the other way round, with fashion borrowing from animation characters (think about the over-exploited SpongeBob SquarePants appearing in Moschino's A/W 14 collection).
In some ways, you find it hard justifying such a collection, also bearing in mind there are no plans for the umpteenth cinematic remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at the moment, though such clothes could turn out quite handy for Carnival or at a masked ball (seeing it's extremely difficult to find costumes for the Sugar Rush racers in adult sizes...).
Fashion has accustomed to seeing on the runways amazons and prostitutes, sensual fatal ladies, vampires, street urchins, fairies and princesses living a unicorn land and now childish cupcake/candy floss women. You really wonder if these are the roles we're all being cast in as modern women and if - and in case when - we'll ever see real working women on the runways.
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