One of the main inspirations for Dior's Haute Couture collection by Raf Simons was David Bowie. The iconic artist actually appeared on quite a few menswear runways in the last few years: at times designers displayed a fascination with his Ziggy Stardust incarnation as photographed by Duffy for the album cover of "Aladdin Sane"; at others their explored themes like ambiguity and duplicity as portrayed in Nicholas Roeg's The Man Who Fell To Earth.
Yet it looks like Bowie's chameleonic disguises are keeping on intriguing designers. The model in the lookbook of Undercover's Autumn/Winter 2015/16 menswear collection assumes indeed a series of poses reminiscent of Bowie's on the cover of "Heroes".
David Bowie's song titles were also embroidered on the back of a varsity jacket, while designer Jun Takahashi tended to mix in the rest of the collection classic tailored moods with functional workwear and practical sportswear.
A formal electric blue jacket with silky details around the collar was juxtaposed to windowpane plaid raincoats, green duffel coats, and parkas, while stretch-cotton track pants were given a formal look.
There were two further themes included in the collection: technology and horror. The former was represented by the iPhone 6 see-through pockets integrated in the outerwear that will allow to turn one's jacket into a personal screen while transforming at the same time a portable device into a piece of wearable technology.
The horror theme was approached from two points of view: kitsch and modern - see the collages of old-time horror films, the assassins' gloves, jacquard hands appearing on light cardigans and the blood "Slash" signatures on black backgrounds - and classic/Gothic via a Biblical scene, "Samuel appearing to Saul in the Presence of the Witch of Endor" (1777) by Henry Fuseli.
In this scene from "The Book of Samuel", as the armies of the Philistines are gathering to attack Israel, Saul, feeling abandoned by God, seeks advice from a witch who summons for him the ghost of the prophet Samuel.
The image was replicated on quilted jackets, parkas and sweaters in which Takahashi mixed imagination and a taste for the fantastic with supernatural visions and Gothic nightmares.
While these sub-themes may be seen as contrasting with the main subject of the collection - "classic meets sportswear" - they are actually very symbolic: Gothic paintings drew indeed on folklore, popular culture, imagination, but also classical art.
As a whole this was a wearable and versatile collection that, combining modern idols, highly charged horror images and streetwear, will prove successful among young fashion fans.
It is inevitable if you have studied the history of fashion, if you're an academic or a fashion writer with a solid knowledge in this subject, to feel a sense of uneasiness when watching a catwalk show in the company of key people from the industry or when reading some of the show reviews on the main fashion sites or magazines. Mind you, the sense of uneasiness is not caused by the fact that you are out of your depth, it derives from something else.
Most times and in both cases you will be confronted by enthusiastically positive comments: if you're experiencing live the catwalk show you will even see occasional people crying as if they had just gone through a mystic experience, and if you're reading the review, you'll note the persistently annyoing use of the dreaded exclamation mark to highlight that what they saw was fantastically terrific. So you start experiencing that sense of uneasiness, thinking you're the odd one out, you're the crazy one seeing/not seeing things. Or maybe there's nothing wrong with you, but we're just living through a collective fashion hysteria (augmented by an unhealthy fear of losing your advertisers).
Take Raf Simons' Haute Couture collection for Christian Dior. For the occasion, the Maison’s traditional couture venue - the Musée Rodin - was transformed with mirrors and a scaffolding structure that may have looked as borrowed from the opening scenes of William Klein’s Qui êtes-vous Polly Maggoo?
Entitled "Moonage Daydream", the collection started (and closed) with overturned cupcake liner-like full pleated skirts covered in coloured ribbons in green, orange, yellow, red, and blue, that echoed the voluminously well defined silhouettes of the New Look designs.
Futuristic elements were introduced via see-through vinyl capes decorated with delicate flowery prints; sequin-encrusted A-line mini-dresses in bright shades matched with thigh-high acid-bright vinyl boots and featuring cut outs and openings that provided the designer with the possibility of adding a further spatial dimension in just one garment; striped body-con jumpsuits pointed instead towards glam, while knitted jumpsuits with graphic motifs were maybe relics of a time when Ziggy Stardust favoured Kansai Yamamoto, or references to Issey Miyake and Dai Fujiwara’s A-POC (A Piece of Cloth) concept knitwear.
There were actually further elements that pointed towards the future and Space Age such as the short coats reminiscent of André Courrèges and the dresses cutaway at the sides and fastened by a silver ring, the same process that was applied to the hairstyles with extension ponytails fastened with colourful double rings (reminiscent of infinity symbols) designed by Simons to create interlocking abstract shapes, a look worthy of an Amazon out of a sci-fi film (a style now known in some fashion circles as the "couture ponytail" View this photo).
Simons actually acknowledged that in this collection there was a combination of different decades - the '50s, '60s and '70s - represented by three keywords, romance, experimentation and liberation, with a strong Bowie link (see also the soundtrack mixing Bowie songs and Japanese Glam rock).
Everything was exquisitely made by the "petites mains" - from the complex textures and surfaces, to pleats and embroideries, guipure dresses and silvery decorations - everything was perfectly presented, but there was a point to make: there weren't too many new ideas in this collection, though there were a lot of remixed pieces.
The plastic fantastic capes with floral branches pointed towards Schiaparelli's early experiments with rhodophane that resulted in her cape de verre; the transparent plastic corset donned by one of the models seemed borrowed from Barbarella's wardrobe; the stripy jumpsuits and dresses were combinations of André Courrèges' Spring/Summer 1965 collection (that, in the last few seasons, has displayed the annoying tendency of resurfacing every two years on the global runways...) and Pierre Cardin's striped bodysuits; the mini-dresses matched with thigh high boots were reminiscent of Cardin's mini-dresses paired with second-skin stretch boots; jacquard motifs on the psychedelic catsuit also called to mind the bold geometries of Cardin's dresses as modelled by Hiroko Matsumoto.
Funnily enough, in multiple interviews, Cardin often stated that he was inspired throughout his career by space discoveries and by the moon in particular, elements that have informed these creations and the previous Haute Couture collection designed by Simons for Dior.
Yet the main point to make about today's fashion is not the degree of derivation you can spot in a contemporary collection. The point is that now we can definitely celebrate the subtle transformation of Takeji Hirakawa's "Fashion DJ" into a professional "Fashion Remixer" (a figure actually born with Miuccia Prada...). And while - that's true - a remix can be better than the original version, if fashion is a box of Lego-like blocks that can be arranged and recreated without genuinely innovating anything (quiz: provide the name of one single contemporary designer who patented their own fabrics/materials), then we can all be fashion designers. Maybe, when we see the next perfectly polished remixed collection, we will have to point this out at the next influential editor who stands up and excitedly shouts "He’s recreated woman!" like Miss Maxwell in Polly Maggoo to fictitious designer Ducasse.
For some fashion designers taking inspiration from films can be extremely tricky. One of the most dangerous pitfalls of the cinematic inspiration is the fact that it can easily result in garments that borrow very literally from specific scenes and that therefore fall into the "costume" category. While (up to a certain point) this is considered as acceptable when it comes to Haute Couture collections, it is rather impractical in ready-to-wear. Yet there are designers that can pull off the cinematic derivation in intriguing ways.
Hussein Chalayan moved for example from a highly stylish film, Murder on the Orient Express (1974) directed by Sidney Lumet and based on Agatha Christie's eponymous novel, for his Pre-Fall 2015 and Autumn/Winter 2015-16 menswear collections.
The designer wasn't too literal, though, in referencing the film or its main characters: in the collections there are indeed no suits à la Hercule Poirot, and no extravagantly rich feather hats, liquid evening gowns or conservative ensembles like the pieces donned by the main female characters such as Princess Natalia Dragomiroff (Dame Wendy Hiller), Mrs. Harriet Belinda Hubbard (Lauren Bacall), and Greta (Ingrid Bergman).
Chalayan played instead with some of the moods in the film. The Occident Vs Orient dichotomy represented by the journey of the train topically intertwines with Chalayan's biography (impossible not to think about his Cypriot origins, his life in London and his collections showcased in Paris...), a journey that the designer reproduced as a minimalist map-like long line on sweaters.
You could argue that the film's tagline - "The greatest cast of suspicious characters ever involved in murder" - was mirrored in the tailored suits included in the collection and featuring an asymmetrical internal flap that fastened on the front and that conceptually pointed towards duplicity and ambiguity.
While there were mild references to uniforms (maybe hints at the suits donned by Pierre, the conductor), it was actually the wintry scenes of the train stuck in the Balkan snow among the trees that provided wide inspirations for ample and cocooning coats with round shoulders for the Pre-Fall looks and for tailored yet functional jackets and sporty outerwear for men.
The interior design of the passenger carriages also proved inspirational: the bi-coloured patterns of the seats upholstery inspired geometrical prints in black and white or embossed motifs on jumpers and dresses.
While the last design in both the collections, a jumper with a mysterious shape evoked the silhouette of a detective or (more likely) of a murdered body (with 3D fringes spilling out of the image) or maybe the shadows appearing in the chaotic first scenes of the film, the only look that moved more literally from a costume was a white woman's shirt with a panel on the back in which strips of tulle and silvery threads reproduced the beaded motifs on the cardigan worn by Lauren Bacall as Mrs Hubbard in Murder on the Orient Express.
A stylish and humorous story, Murder on the Orient Express has also got a wonderful finale, with a cover up, a struggle (Poirot's) with conscience and a train getting free once again to continue its journey as everyone toasts the outcomes. In a way, it makes for a wonderful metaphor for the fashion show season: so much fuss, fury and suspense, but, essentially, an endless mad journey that keeps on going till the next station/season.
It is always exciting to follow the career of different designers and see what they are up to a few months after you interviewed them. The last time Irenebrination's readers met Samuel Gassmann he was a cufflink designer.
The good news is that he is still creating arty, architectural and poetical cufflinks, but he has added to his portfolio a lovely product - literally. Gassmann has indeed come up with a design that celebrates love - wedding bands.
Nothing is what is seems though in Gassman's world and, if his cufflinks hide multiple stories and meanings, his "Double" wedding rings conceal a secret symbolism: they can be opened but can't separate, forming a flat figure eight - the symbol of infinity and eternity. In this intimate space hidden inside the bands Gassmann conceals engravings and stones only known to the wearers.
Available in a selection of materials - yellow gold, rose gold, white gold, platinum (and in two sizes 2 and 3 mm) - the bands are sold exclusively at Colette in Paris. Looks like Paris is, after all, still the city of love.
Can you please introduce this new passion - jewellery - to our readers? What is the story behind your wedding bands? Samuel Gassmann: Originally, it was a traditional piece of jewellery that first emerged during the Renaissance. The ring, unearthed on one of the browsing expeditions I am so fond of, instantly piqued my curiosity. No sooner encountered than adopted, the ring inspired me to write a new history for an object that would be dedicated, this time around, to the celebration of love, driven, as always, by a passion to rediscover the forms and uses of long ago, measured anew by the yardstick of today's desires. I love this item because it corresponds to the idea that I have of luxury: discreet and for oneself. My approach in making this design is the same I apply to my collections of cufflinks.
How did you decide to move onto such a unique piece of jewellery, and did you have to study/research the subject for a while before setting down to work on such a piece? Samuel Gassmann: Everything started because I got married last May. My wife, Donatienne had in mind a very clear and precise idea for the wedding band she wanted - a wedding band that was worn in her family for a long time. So we started our researches at the end 2013. We found my own wedding band in a flea market - it was perfect at the first fitting, it was like a sign. That's how the adventure began! From the idea to the design it took me one year and a half to be able to commercialize this item since it is actually quite hard to make, and bring to it my personal touch with the option to add diamonds inside the ring.
There are always multiple stories and meanings behind your cufflinks, what's the symbolism in the wedding bands? Samuel Gassmann: Infinity. Originally, the wedding ring has a religious significance: a symbol, that of two people joined forever, made one by the grace of the invisible element that unites them.
In how many versions and in which metals is the wedding band ring available and what made you opt for such metals? Samuel Gassmann: The wedding bands are available in rose/white and yellow gold with one/three or seven diamonds. On the other parts of the rings it is possible to engrave names, a word, a short sentence or a date. After working for 5 years on bronze and silver only, it's refreshing to be able to move onto precious metals and it's amazing to be able to do so via wedding bands.
How long does it take you to customise the designs with special dates, names, letters or messages? Samuel Gassmann: People will have to be a bit patient because it takes a few days to customise the pieces inside, from a week to 10 days. As I said, it is possible to engrave two names, a date, a short sentence on the same ring and the best thing is that you can keep these messages secret.
As a Paris-based French accessory designer who has also worked as a journalist, how did you feel about the recent dramatic events in Paris? Samuel Gassmann: I was really afraid when they happened, but I was relieved to see the mobilisation of people on such an important subject for a French citizen - freedom of speech. As a designer, I expect to continue thinking and creating freely for years and years.
Introducing a successful innovative, useful and functional product on the market can be tricky nowadays, but, if like fashion and graphic designer Penter Yip you manage to do so, you can bet you will win over many fans.
Fashionary fans will be happy to know that a new product has just been released - a highly portable (9cm x 16 cm) pocket size notebook made in collaboration with designer Peter Jensen.
This collaboration was actually almost unexpected: as Yip told Irenebrination, it was actually Jensen who got in touch with them after seeing a previous collaboration with Swash London. Sharing the same will to create a fun and stylish yet useful product, the Jensen/Fashionary teams came up with an exclusive notebook.
The latter is available in two versions - silkscreened blue stripes or red polka hearts - both with Jensens' trademark rabbit logo and both featuring a 2015-16 calendar, pages of fashion information (measurements, patterns, laundry labels, mini fashion dictionary...) and 132 ruled pages. Bonuses? A Peter Jensen rabbit bookmark and the designer's cartoonish rabbits popping up here and there on every page of the notebook.
This humorous collaboration arrives in time for the womenswear shows, but it's also perfect as a St Valentine gift, though in both cases you will have to get it as quickly as possible from the Fashionary store (Price: US $24.90) as this product comes in a limited edition. Stay tuned for further Fashionary surprises and keep updated on the latest Fashionary releases by checking out its blog, Facebook or Instagram pages featuring illustrations and sketches by Fashionary collaborator Vikki Yau.
Images 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 in this post courtesy of Penter Yip/Fashionary.
We live in times in which we are quite often confronted by monumental pieces in museum and art spaces, their size, bright colours and intriguing shapes immediately striking our eyes, filling our field of vision. Yet, faced by an object reproduced in a reduced scale, we find ourselves forced to observe things a bit better, as the object prompts us to stop and take our time to look at it and admire its details. Dina Berman's artworks do exactly that.
A terrific miniaturist, Jerusalem-based Berman creates tiny sculptures, carving them out of wood, reinventing them from paper, bits of wire or rather unusual materials such as matchsticks. At times Berman recreates entire scenes: a miniature plane lands on a paper clip, minuscule bottles hiding secret messages float on the surface of a matchstick turned into a liquid sea, while exquisitely carved ships fight a deadly battle.
Through her charming and inventive delicate pieces – from rocking chairs and rocking horses to bicycles, peaceful palms, boats and trains – Berman retrains our eyes, teaching us to grasp the beauty in details and the overwhelming wonderment behind tiny portable jewel-like worlds.
Can you introduce yourself to our readers? Dina Berman: I'm 39 years old and I live in Jerusalem, Israel, with my son who is nearly 5 years old. I graduated from the Ceramic Design department at the Bezalel Art Academy in 2003. Since childhood I have enjoyed working with my hands, using different materials to make all kinds of things. In the past few years I have mainly been working with paper-clay or matchsticks.
When did you start creating miniatures and was there somebody in your family already well versed in this field? Dina Berman: I started creating miniatures in my mid-twenties. It kind of evolved over time. Although I do have very talented parents and siblings, it wasn't something I learned at home.
What fascinates you about miniatures and the miniature world in general? Dina Berman: My fascination with miniatures is about two things. First, the ability to create a tiny world, and the challenge it presents of creating smaller works of art that resemble or remind me of places or things I would like to see. Second - the more serious of the two - my early life experience of needing to hide. In my early twenties I struggled with the realization that I was probably a lesbian. Growing up as an Orthodox Jew, living a very regulated religious life, there was no place for someone gay. It was against everything I believed in. I always imagined that I would marry a man and have children, so the idea of being a lesbian was terrible and extremely frightening. I was already studying at Bezalel by then, but I lived in constant fear of being "found out" because I believed my world would completely fall apart. That was why all my work could be hidden in the palm of my hand. If anyone asked "what are you doing?" I could close my hand and say, "Nothing". A lot of my work had to do with transportation, or rather, running away. Planes, ships, rocking horses...
Which are your main materials of choice? Dina Berman: My main medium right now is matchsticks. I also use paper-clay, cardboard, string, seeds and other materials when working on a larger scale.
In your matchstick art, a simple yet dangerous object becomes a poetical thing: did you ever think about this transformation when you started working with matchsticks? Dina Berman: I deliberately chose to use matchsticks partly because they are mundane and often overlooked - and thus serving to camouflage my work - but, more importantly, because my work can ignite in flames at any moment. The latter is yet another reminder of how fragile life can be. LIke the secret life I was living at the time I began doing this work, as well as life in general. About a year ago a friend and I made a short video of one of my battleships burning. It is currently showing in an exhibition, along with some of my other work, at the Tobak & Match Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.
Your designs and creations are minutely detailed: how long does it take you to work on a piece? Dina Berman: Each matchstick piece takes a few hours to create. Because I am a mother and also have a job, I sometimes begin a piece one day and have to finish it on another.
Would you ever incorporate your artworks into accessories or jewellery? Dina Berman: I haven't yet made matchstick jewellery, but it's a clever idea.
Did you ever customise a tiny work of art for a customer? Or do you accept special requests from customers and collectors? Dina Berman: I used to make personalised miniatures as gifts - but not out of matchsticks. I have also created customised miniature models of rooms. There are certain themes and pieces I enjoy creating from matchsticks, and those are for sale. I always try to create new works and improve.
Can we visit your studio and buy your creations directly from you? Dina Berman: You are more than welcome to visit my website - www.diniature.com - and we can discuss what you are looking for! My studio is actually a workbench in my house. But, if you happen to be in Israel, we could arrange a tour of my workbench!
Are you working on any special pieces/exhibitions at the moment and is there a country you'd like to take your art to? Dina Berman: Right now I am showing my work at the Tobak & Match Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. I would really love to show my work at other galleries or museums and I'm open to suggestions. Lately I am working on carving animals, but it's a lot more complicated and challenging than I originally thought!
Images credits for this post
Artwork by Dina Berman. Photographs by Hila Shiloni, Naama Mushkin and Netta Maykon.
Fans of Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos will be thrilled to hear that MGM MACAU will soon present the first exhibition of her work in China.
The first woman and the youngest creative to exhibit her work in the Palace of Versailles in Paris (in 2012), Vasconcelos will showcase new work specially conceived for the Grande Praça at the heart of MGM MACAU. This intervention will be part of the art programme with a focus on Macau's integral role in the 500 year history of trade between China, Portugal and the rest of the world. In the 16th century Emperor Ming invited indeed Portuguese merchants to settle in Macau. From there, the merchants traded between China and the rest of the world.
Moving from the Portuguese heritage in Macau, Vasconcelos will unveil a new piece inspired by the marine and the maritime. This is not the first time Vasconcelos plunges into the abyss to provide us with her own vision of the deep sea environment: at the 55th Venice International Art Biennale, the artist represented Portugal with an intervention on the floating Portuguese pavilion, an old cacilheiro that featured inside its cabin illuminated crocheted tentacles in several blue shades that looked as if they belonged to a mysterious creature haunting the ferry.
Yet this time Vasconcelos has gone for a gigantic Octopus from her "Valkyrie" series. Expected to be installed in March at the MGM MACAU, the "Valkyrie Octopus" will occupy several metres and integrate LED lights. According to a statement by the artist's studio, this is also among the most complex pieces ever created by Vasconcelos.
Further exhibitions featuring Vasconcelos will follow in Brazil, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, so try to catch her this year in a museum or art space near you.
Joana Vasconcelos' installation will be at MGM MACAU from 16 March to 31 October 2015.
Image credits for this post
1. - 2. Joana Vasconcelos, Golden Valkyrie, 2012, Installation view. Handmade woollen crochet, industrial knitted fabric, fabrics, ornaments, polyester, steel cables, polystyrene 650 x 1140 x 1360 cm, Kalfayan Galleries, Athens. Photo: Luís Vasconcelos / Courtesy Unidade Infinita Projectos and Château de Versailles
It is always a good exercise to keep your fashion history memories going, trying to spot where certain inspirations and ideas from the current collections may have come from, but it is equally intriguing to try and identify correspondences in smaller details or accessories. Let's look for example at Hermès's Autumn/Winter 2015-16 menswear collection-
Véronique Nichanian Creative director at Hermès visualised in her A/W 2015-16 collection a man working and strolling in the city. Nichanian's models walking down the runway in Paris' Maison de la Radio seemed to reflect in their clothes a sleek urban environment: traditional pinstripes or suits in concrete grey were juxtaposed to more relaxed outfits inspired by luxury sportswear but recreated in the finest fabrics available that included track pants in a shorn mink and leather/crocodile sweatshirts (among the other luxurious materials featured in the collection there were also double-faced cashmere, baby lamb and calfskin), while an arty twist was added via graphic prints by artist Richard Gorman.
There were details, though, that looked borrowed from the past or from other designers: the lining of one coat seemed to include schemes of mechanical parts, evoking classic Brioni pieces from the early '60s, such as gabardine raincoats with leather details that featured a printed lining with images inspired by means of transport or engine parts.
The working bags with embossed cameras and snorkeling masks looked instead like a lighthearted version of the darker (and infinitely more ironic) "Guardian Angel" bags by Dutch duo Vlieger & Vandam that feature a three-dimensional gun or knife embossed on the wool felt or on the leather (the knife/gun bags have been been produced for quite a few years now, becoming the duo's trademark designs).
Are these references real or imagined? People working in the industry will tell you "it's in the air" when you point out how something was already done or can be pinned back to specific designs from the past, but the truth is that it is often possible to identify tangible links and connections with the past in many different collections.
There is a lot of talk in fashion about merging male/female elements in the same garments and generally uniforming genders. The same discussion about genders, you could argue, has been going on in the art field for decades.
Hannah Höch tackled for example the nature of female identity in her collage "Dompteuse" (Tamer, dating from 1930, but reworked in the version we have around the 1960s).
The Tamer in this collage was represented as an androgynous figure, a human body with a porcelain mannequin head of a woman that meditatively looked at an anthropomorphic sea lion. There is a sort of struggle to achieve a balance of forces as the Tamer on a rich brown background surrounded by brass studs seems to dominate over the sea lion that, at the same time, has a strange and uncanny look. There are a lot of contradictions in this fascinating work that prompts the viewers to wonder who is the dominant figure in this representation of gender ambiguity.
Inspired by some key concepts in this artwork - the theme of the balancing act between dominating figures, the gender ambiguity in the dummy and the fact that the best collages contain cheap everyday objects - I came up with the following necklace.
The small articulated mannequin represents gender ambiguity, and the fact that one of its legs is getting out of the frame (the cord forming the necklace) hints at the balancing act between genders, but also between physical spaces. No sea lion? Well, I'll maybe keep it for another time and another necklace, this is, after all, a very quick Sunday project.
In a previous post on this site we looked at the work of Nukeme, a Japanese designer incorporating glitches in his knitwear and digitally printed pieces. Glitches may actually turn into a fully-fledged trend this year: Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, for example, included in their A/W 15-16 Monsieur and Pre-Fall 2015 collections distorted tweeds that reproduce the effect of television static.
The design duo also introduced in their menswear collection pixellated effects, combining in the same jumper a traditional argyle jumper and a hacked knitted pattern to create a hybrid top. A traditional pattern on a ski-wear inspired jumper was also hacked by a glitched effect that seemed to erase almost entirely the knitted motif.
In Viktor & Rolf's menswear and Pre-Fall collections there was another sub-theme, retro videogaming: a terrific inspiration (as proved by the hip exhibitions about this topic recently organised by different museums in Europe), it surfaced as a geometric block pattern that called to mind the iconic Tetris blocks. Unfortunately in the Pre-Fall 2015 collection the duo added a romantic motif of appliqued flowers that somehow ruined the geometrical linearity of the top.
In a way Viktor & Rolf didn't really explore to the full the possibilities that morphing and tweaking houndstooth and tweeds can offer, proving that independent and little known designers seem to have gone further in their explorations into more innovative textiles.
The Heart of Darkness-evoking African mask inspired make-up donned by the models and the aggressive accessories and necklaces that seemed borrowed from voodoo practices, made some critics claim they could detect a devilish inspiration in Riccardo Tisci's menswear collection for Givenchy.
Yet, maybe, rather than hellish flames, Tisci was channelling Alberto Burri's arty combustions in his designs with burnt prints.
The glitched and hacked motif returned instead in the Moroccan carpets printed or reproduced in dégradé sequins.
Black cascades of sequins seemed to erase the motif, while on a gauzy evening gown the effect was reminiscent of Alexander McQueen's puzzle bodice from his S/S 2001 collection.
The erased carpet concept called to mind the principle behind Richard Hutten's "Playing With Tradition" rugs. In his pieces, mixing tradition and modernity, Hutten combined indeed traditional patterns with digital effects that stretched the colours, deleting the original decorative elements.
Glitches or hacked and burnt effects are maybe here to stay, so keep your eyes peeled to spot more of them on the next shows. If you want to anticipate the trend, add instead some stylish burns to your old clothes and explain you're going down the Burri path.
