Photo by Anthea Simms
Photo by Anthea Simms
Photo by Anthea Simms
Photo by Anthea Simms
From Mary Katrantzou’s cheeky classroom prints, to Diane Von Furstenberg’s Dali-esque clutches and Nicholas Kirkwood’s ponytailed shoes– sophisticated surrealism is the name of the game this fall.
This 20th century movement celebrated an element of surprise in the everyday. It did away with conformity to make the ordinary, extraordinary. Today’s designers are following suit with shocking looks of their own.
Schiaparelli’s devil-may-care attitude has come to the fall runways like a schoolgirl with a trick up her sleeve– a clock shaped clutch at Diane Von Furstenberg and a childlike Matryoshka doll bag by Charlotte Olympia that winks impishly.
Over at Comme des Garçons, ultra-exaggerated suit shapes used cliché primary colours, floral patterns and polka dots cut into absurdist 2D shapes. In fact, the entire show seemed a tribute to the surrealist approach of looking objectively at ones surroundings (read: the fashion world) and turning it on its head.
Like Schiaparelli’s infamous shoe-shaped hat of 1937– these pieces remind us that fashion can laugh at itself whilst remaining elegant, intelligent and above all, original.