[The First 2 Shows]

Amanda Laird Cherry

I have but one word:

Spookasem - or as others know it; candyfloss.

Who remembers it?

Yeah you know, that really thin stuff that tastes good and kinda melts into your mouth?

Yeah that stuff.

This whole range was just that.

Thin, whispy material. But before I get carried away, some history :)

Li Edelkoort said that this year we are going to see water coming back into trends. In her own words, "Fashion will break free with overwhelming fluidity becoming the principle of design"

She mentioned the influence that waves, currents and ripples will have in the 'fluidity of folds' and drapes.

She also mentioned foam. You know, that 'wit skuim' at the edge of the shore?

Yeah, that.

Edelkoort discussed how foam will be influencing thinly knit sweaters and fine foamy layers to shield any sudden summer breeze.

It is clear that fashion is going back to it's source; nature.

Amanda's range this year was inspired by that very concept. There was an overwhelming sense of fluidity, in everything from the way the dress curved the body, to the ghost-like material that brushed by before you noticed. She looked at incorporating summer into her designs and not just inspiring them. The whisps of fabric around the ankles or hips suggested humid summer breezes - those light enough to fall in love with.

There was also an abundance of folds and ripplets (as Edelkoort describes) in stockings and the way dresses fell - almost like a light summer rain.

Her use of colour pallet was also very interesting this year. I'd like to say they were all pale colours but I wouldn't want you imagining baby colours. No. They were almost shy hues of a colour - from light, subtle blues to organic creams and dry khaki's. All, tracing back to our most basic source - nature.

All I kept seeing was a vision of Coco Chanel at the Horse Races - perhaps due to the horse harnesses around the models' heads. Weird you may say but I must say that is always one thing I've loved about Amanda - her trust in experimentation.

New trends. New Ideas. New sources.

When asking Amanda about her range she explained it to be inspired by that of 'Worker's wear'. Overalls and Domestic cleaning aprons - moving to America, her perception on House work had changed. The harnesses, she added (and we were glad she did because at this point, our interpretations seemed pathetic), were to show how the difficulty of house work ways one down.

A wonderful range non the less.

Superella

Gold.

Remember that colour? The one we nearly forgot about?

Superella's show started off with that familiar circus music and a model dancing in onto the ramp with a bunch of gold balloons in the air. I was thinking.... Uh, did I come in through the right door?

Superella, (or better known as Ella Buter an ex-Lisof student) took circus-fun to a whole new level. She brought back the method of putting fun, back into fashion.

Because admit it, sometimes we take it overly too serious.

She looked at shapes like triangles and squares and put them back into the fabrics. The dresses were loose and hanging comfortably on the body. Using black and white in sharp contrast, she brought back the french B+W check and the thinly spaced lines so that the basics of Black and White were revived. Summer was hinted in the way that the clothes fell comfortably off one's body like egyptian cotton or finely made linen.

But most of all and I repeat;

Gold.

Everything about it. From it's multi-purpose usage to it's malleability in the sense that it just goes with anything and creates a contrast. We forget about gold and it's richness and stubborness. The fact that it's far to bold and arrogant to make peace, but also that it says so much about a specific moment or person. It has the ability to change what it touches,

and no this isn't the famous King Midas story - although I must admit, the colour did make him pretty famous.

With Gold, Superella brought back the use of Spray paint - that horrible yet cool stuff that sticks onto nothing you need it to but everything you don't want it to.

She showed that an old pair of takkies can be sprayed into a new, bling pair... Oh and with reference to Martha Stewarts's latest infamous speech at Design Indaba this year

- you can put glitter on anything!

And the best about her show was that she reminded us, not to forget to laugh and to have fun

- no matter how old we are.

Colours, buttons, gold, spray paint; you name it.

Superella revived it.

Guillotine

Here's something awesome I learnt about the colour Black tonight (I seem to be learning about a lot of colours then)

Black, in isolation is terrifying.

No not like, in a bad way but rather in what Guillotine was trying to show

- The Sweetness of Terror

Black is such a rogue colour that it absorbs the very element of light. And that's precisely what the show did when it started off. In total darkness they entered, glow sticks in the hair and a lamp shade in their hands. It brought a whole different meaning to the title 'The unbearable lightness of being' - with emphasis on the 'light'.

Guillotine looked at the beauty of black in isolation with the hint every now and then of a pale hue. The folds mentioned by Edelkoort were seen again in the changing forms of vinyl and leather.

There was also the use of braces

- wait lemme rephrase that; suspenders -

(wouldn't want you thinking bout those teeth things now)

the whole suspender wasn't used but instead just the buckle or just the hint of an elastic.

Guillotine reminded me why black is so easy to wear because it just defines every part of you

- for the better that is.

It reminded me that sometimes we need to let it crease and take its own form.

Not heavy black, but instead moving it into a subtle, whispy form.

Clothing needs to be worn and shown that it is. It moves and breathes and needs to take its own form in its own time.

I can't help but feel inspired.

Truly.

Check you Tomorrow

Lovage

Paris B