"What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun," states the "Book of Ecclesiastes", but, somehow, this sentence perfectly describes the fashion world.
We all know indeed that, once you live long enough, you can spot trends coming back even when you're not a fashion commentator, you just need to look at contemporary fashion and make quick comparisons with your personal history, remembering what you, your siblings or your friends used to wear when you were younger. This is why, the older you get, the more you feel a vague sensation of déjà vu at every runway show, a sensation that reappeared also during London Fashion Week.
Richard Quinn opened his runway with 22 total black looks to pay homage to Queen Elizabeth II. When it was announced that the Queen had died, the designer, his team, and a group of helpers immediately started working on a series of melancholic outfits.
Inspired by Queen Victoria, who wore black for half of her life after the death of her husband Prince Albert, and by the veils donned by the Queen and her sister Princess Margaret to their father's (King George VI) funeral in 1952, the designer came up with a wide range of black dresses and coats in all shapes and silhouettes. Some were more modern, others, with their formal styles, evoked the '50s, and were accessorized with floor-length veils or with black beaded tiaras calling to mind jet jewellery pieces.
It was no mean feat and the designer and his team worked night and day to create this dark processions of cape coats, ruffled dresses and velvet tunics with muted references to Cristóbal Balenciaga's black designs and to Dior's sculpted silhouettes. This section of the show was an apt tribute to the late Queen who sat front row at Richard Quinn's 2018 show and who presented him in that occasion with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.
It was a shame, though, that Quinn didn't have the courage to edit the rest of his collection. When from mourning he reversed to his S/S 23 looks, things went a bit dubious.
Quinn worked on the concept of public surveillance and CCTV camera for this section of the show, but, unfortunately, he didn't go further into it to create maybe textiles that confuse facial identification technologies, but focused on colourful bulbous-topped bodysuits.
The problem was that the more you looked at them, the more they sent déjà vu shivers down your spine, till you eventually realized this section seemed to echo Viktor & Rolf's A/W 1998 Haute Couture collection "Atomic Bomb" and Comme des Garçons' S/S 97 "Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body" collection (also known as the "lumps and bumps" collection).
In both cases those padded structures had a meaning, with V&R exploring the silhouette of the mushroom cloud produced by an atomic bomb and Rei Kawakubo analysing themes such as distorted human anatomies and beauty ideals through her exaggerated silhouettes, while it remaind a bit of a mystery why Quinn went for the body morphing bulbous structures.
The connection with V&R's "Atomic Bomb" brought back to mind the fact that V&R also did an entirely black collection inspired by black holes (A/W 2001-02), and therefore prompted you to wonder if Quinn had actually taken more than one inspiration from the design duo.
So what's the lesson for today? Well, have the courage to edit, cut and even kill some designs from your collection especially when they do not seem to fit in or if they end up creating too many connections with previous collections (and, for god’s sake, leave alone bulbous monstrous things, they don't work on anybody's runways but on Comme des Garcons').
And if you're ever wondering like the "Book of Ecclesiastes" does, "Is there anything of which one can say, 'Look! This is something new'?" well, yes, new designs can obviously be created. Just remember that it takes time and courage to create something new. Yet those ones who are brave enough to venture in those uncharted territories will genuinely discover amazingly innovative body landscapes. You ready for such a challenge?
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