Fractured Layers at Off‑White

Off-White, SS16, Paris.

The Off-White collection for Spring-Summer 2016 was filled with deconstructed finishes and patchworked denim set against crisp white t-shirts and structured pleating.

While raw deconstructed edges and asymmetrical silhouettes tend to loosen the overall appearance of a collection, a sense of structure is brought into the garments in this case through more angular elements. Panels of pleating, for example, automatically insert slabs of repetition onto the garments, while angular joins break the circular lines of t-shirt neckbands. The monochrome grid fabric used on some of the garments again gives that same sense of structure and repetition, however, using fabric with repetitive prints can also be used to further accentuate the movement of the fabric in your designs, which is the case here where the grid is fractured across a pleated panel and then becomes distorted when gathered in towards the waist. So to put this another way – if you have structure in your collection, then this actually gives you more to play off in terms of deconstruction and gives you a counterbalance to the more raw elements that you use.

In amongst the deconstructed necklines and raw edges, some of the fuller silhouettes gave a sense of old world couture. A couple of the skirts were cut long and full with concentrated layers of ruffled pleating creating fullness around the hips before spreading into longer asymmetrical layers closer to the hem. This silhouette seems to tug at memories of couture dresses cut with peplums so that the fullness around the hips accentuates the illusion of a nipped in waist. But the layering also seems to simply reference the more basic layering that occurs in everyday clothes as well; open hoodies over elongated t-shirts over jeans.

The reason why this seems to be interesting is that there seems to be genuine elegance hidden amongst the deconstruction, and with so many collections playing on awkward proportions it makes for a nice sweet spot to be able to hit “cool” and “elegant” at the same time.