I Spy Detailing At Mary Katrantzou
Watching Mary Katrantzou’s fall/winter collection strut down the runway Tuesday morning was like flipping through an I Spy book. Are those typewriter keys on that coat? Is that a spoon I see? And a hanger-print bodice? All of the above and more appeared on the designer’s hyper-sculpted fall looks. And while she noted backstage that her collection was inspired by the everyday, her clothes were anything but, as she presented her most technically advanced collection to date. “I felt that it was quite interesting to do a print with something that was very mundane and make it beautiful,” said Katrantzou after the show. From a hot pink and yellow dress covered in a spiral of real pencils to a turtleneck coat printed with bubbles and gift boxes, Katrantzou showed the fash-pack that there was beauty in the ordinary.
Taking cues from Victorian silhouettes, Katrantzou’s looks included skirts with exaggerated, sometimes multi-layered bustles and peplums, luxe, cozy cashmere knits, fluttering chiffon frocks and smartly-tailored trousers. Each line of her structured garments moved in harmony with her rotary phone, diamond earring and chess piece prints, bringing them into the third dimension. Collaborating with French couture embroidery house Lesage, Katrantzou added shimmering texture to an image of a bathtub, which bubbled over with Swarovski crystals and pearls, as well as her emerald green garden hedge print. Katrantzou’s collaboration, as well as her complex ensembles, suggest a step towards a couture collection. “I would love to do that in the future,” said the designer. “Some of the dresses were hand finished because of the intricacy of the embroideries and the construction. I think it’s a wonderful way of offering women something unique and I think this has been a learning curve for us so we can continue to do that in the future.”