Among the new Chinese brads and designers showcasing their work during the latest edition of Shanghai Fashion Week (13th - 21st October 2015), there was also Black Spoon.
Launched by Moti Bai (a graduate from Central Saint Martin) in 2013, the brand often takes inspiration from classical and Renaissaince art, and Moti's expertise lies in pattern design and fabric development.
Though velvet is one of her favourite fabrics, the designer naturally deemed it too heavy to appear in Black Spoon's Spring/Summer 2016 collection, so she opted for lighter yet well structured fabrics to make her garments.
Mainly characterised by cocooning shapes à la Balenciaga, voluminously wide sleeves, ample skirts and exaggerated silhouettes, the collection featured therefore dresses (quite a few ones with a drop-waist silhouette) in printed silk with organza outer layers.
Some looks also betrayed an art derivation as they featured prints of details from Caravaggio's "Bacchus" and Diego Velázquez's "Las Meninas". Both these paintings are quite complex and play with the themes of reality and illusion.
Caravaggio portrayed in "Bacchus" (c. 1595) a youthful god in a loosely draped robe and with grapes and vine leaves in his hair. In the painting, Bacchus holds with his left hand a goblet of wine, almost inviting the viewer to join in.
There are plenty of details to study in this realistic painting, from the fact that Caravaggio may have used a mirror to assist himself while working from life, doing away with the need for drawing, to intriguing elements such as Bacchus' dirty fingernails and Caravaggio's self-portrait reflected in the wine decanter.
Velázquez's Las Meninas (1656), one of the most important paintings in Western art history, portrays instead a scene captured in a room in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid during the reign of King Philip IV of Spain.
The painting presents figures from the Spanish court: the young Infanta Margaret Theresa - surrounded by her entourage of maids of honour, chaperone, bodyguard, two dwarfs and a dog - is the focus of the artwork and she is staring out of the canvas towards the viewer. The mirror on the back wall indicates what is not there - the king and queen, two characters who enter the painting via their reflection.
Moti Bai almost transformed details from these paintings into large stickers that she proceeded to apply on floral backgrounds in pastel colours. Sometimes her billowing sleeves and frilly collars very aptly referenced the costumes in Velázquez's painting, but quite often you wished she had treated these arty references in a more subtle and conceptual way and employed art to make a statement rather than as a mere decorative element, simplifying in this way the deeper relation that may exist between fashion and art (also the designer's previous collection borrowed from art and featured large prints of entire artworks).
It will be interesting to see what Moti Bai will come up with in her next collections in the context of the Chinese fashion scene. The latter has actually transformed in the last few seasons with newcomers and independent designers rising to the attention of the media.
While this may have happened for a change in consumers' spending habits dictated by the devaluation of the yuan, you can bet that the Chinese fashion scene will quicky develop in the next few years: who knows, we may even start seeing a few young and independent designers from China moving their showcases to the West and infiltrating the schedules of the best known and most famous fashion capitals.
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