Céline, SS16, Paris. There are certain garments where the feats of construction at work are well-known, such as the layers of canvas and horsehair used to mould fabric for tailored jackets. Other garments seem easier or less engineered simply because they are more floaty and lightweight, but of course, this...
29 Oct 2015
Marc Jacobs, SS16, New York. In a palette of red, white and blue the Marc Jacobs collection for Spring-Summer 2016 was thick with Americana references and slathered with glittering stars and stripes. Within this relatively narrow concept and colour palette, the garments showed some incredible uses of embellishment and spliced...
25 Oct 2015
Christian Dior, SS16, Paris. After the recent news that Raf Simons would no longer be the artistic director at Dior (for women’s RTW, Haute Couture and accessories), it seemed a fitting time to celebrate the fineness of the construction details in his last collection for Spring-Summer 2016. After all, it’s...
16 Oct 2015
Christopher Kane, SS16, London.As ever, the catwalk show for Spring-Summer 2016 showed the latest results from the Christopher Kane laboratory. In many ways, this collection seemed to combine the colours and fabrications which Kane has used in the past with the sweeping sense of movement from last season’s collection which...
09 Oct 2015
Dries Van Noten, SS16, Paris.A few years ago now we did an article that asked How Many Fabrics in the Dries Van Noten Show? and laid out the collection as swatches. Since the Dries Van Noten show for Spring-Summer 2016 was again filled with an amazing range of different prints,...
29 Sep 2015
Yeezy, SS16, New York.While looking at the Yeezy collection for Spring-Summer 2016 with puckered seams and wavy zippers, a question began to form about how to evaluate the construction techniques of a collection. Can it ever support a designer’s concept to have construction details that are technically wrong?
25 Sep 2015
Thom Browne, SS16, New York.The layered suiting ensembles at Thom Browne for Spring-Summer 2016 were embellished with carefully worked appliqué. The motifs were cut in a variety of fabrics and subtle pastel tones and were often spliced into fragments across front closures and shattered across pleated skirts.
18 Sep 2015
Givenchy, SS16, New York.The Givenchy Spring-Summer 2016 collection combined the silky sensuality of lingerie with the strictness of tailoring topped off with lashings of embellishment.
10 Sep 2015
Gucci, AW15, Milan. The Autumn-Winter 2015 collection at Gucci had a more subtle atmosphere, a more come-as-you-are version of “fashion” with pieces layered together in a way that felt lived-in. In particular it was interesting to see the way that this undone quality was used across the tailored pieces with...
04 Sep 2015
Kenzo, AW15, Paris. The Autumn-Winter 2015 collection at Kenzo included some interesting pattern cutting details to create draped details and subtle folds of fullness. At times, sportswear colours and satin fabrications were contrasted with a more historical technique, with cartridge pleats used on sleeve heads and dropped waists.
28 Aug 2015
Louis Vuitton, AW15, Paris. Nicolas Ghesquière has a knack for creating collections that look very wearable but that are still filled with quietly innovative construction details and carefully developed fabrics. For the Autumn-Winter 2015 collection at Louis Vuitton these elements were combined together in unusual ways to create garments and...
21 Aug 2015
Christian Dior, AW15, Haute Couture, Paris. The Autumn-Winter 2015 collection at Christian Dior was filled with bold, immediate design elements such as contrast sleeves and asymmetric outerwear, but there were also quieter and more subtle details with carefully placed darts, pleats and feathers.
