Pad and Protect

I've been grappling with elements of all sorts these past few days – the natural ones which changed dramatically (we got rain, snow, hail, sleet, cloud and sun all in one day) on our tour through the Golden Circle in Iceland.  Then there are the unnatural ones such as poor WiFi which has had me swearing like a banshee at the hotel walls, because even they are slightly more responsive than the hotel staff.  All in all a battle to get a post that might confuse some of you, given that I'm in Iceland but posting about a designer I saw in Moscow during the Cycles and Seasons event.

There was a definite connection though whilst we pummeled through mountainous roads and I thought about Nina Donis' A/W 11-12 collection, a show that closed the Cycles and Seasons event.  Nina Donis, made up of duo/couple Nina Neretina and Donis Pouppis who have been working together for over ten years.  You wouldn't call their label super established but under Cycles and Seasons, it seems they have really honed into what their aesthetic is all about and with that comes standout shows such as this which was pretty much universally lauded as soon as it was over.  That's high praise considering the audience were made to sit outside in minus 5 with orange blankets wrapped around them waiting for the show to start.  I very nearly started fashioning some sort of a knot skirt out of my blanket to ignore the fact that my ears felt like they were going to fall off. 

The wait was well worth it though.  Nina and Donis dealt very directly with the elements that a country like Russia (and Iceland incidentally…) serves up and centred their collection around the quilted padding lining that you get in army jackets.  I saw a few pieces like these in Arckiv's pop-up shop back in December.  They're normally buttoned or tied into the inside of a coat, making it removable if you wish.  The couple took these linings and repeated it as often as they could in a collection to really hone in on the idea of protection and padding.  Despite the repetition of motif though, in various colours, fabrics and finally a print, the padding took on a different feel and threw up a plethora of references.  The opening outfits for instance in white to match the frost that had settled over the concrete floor were reminiscent of fencing outfits…

The ties at the seams means that the pieces can be attached together to make different shapes – a padded jigsaw puzzle that I very much would like to tackle…

In satin I thought of the fluffy eiderdowns that my mother favours for her bedroom…

With textures added such as fur, it's a little nod towards the Russian love and general acceptance of fur especially when a pristine white fur coat came sweeping out…

Add a burst of orange and it's less sterile and as seen in their S/S 11 collection, bright colour injection seems to quite naturally to Nina Donis…

What really slanted the collection towards clothes that were more than about protection against the elements were the use of trainers and socks (in this instance Reeboks),  Never thought I'd see the classic 'chav' uniform of pulled up white socks with trainers over bottoms in a fashion context but here it is…and it's somehow earthing and working with the voluminous silhouettes created by all the padding and the ties and the seams. 

In black and when skirts flared out, there was a touch of Victorian mourning about the pieces.  In particular the finale dress which had a floor length skirt really reminded me of Ada's clothes in the film The Piano…

The real burst of energy and where for me the padded pieces hit beautiful heights was when a painterly floral print was deployed.  Ok, shoot me for being predictable and loving the sole print in the collection but I actually genuinely did love it when used in conjunction with the solid blacks, whites and oranges.  It couldn't have worked if there was another print jostling around in the mix.  In this singular and spectacular stance though, it was glorious to see…