Hashtag Surreal

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>> The fashions have properly started at London.  Does everyone who follows this blog or my Instagram care?  My hunch is that beyond the microcosm world of fashion, not everyone is manically clicking on Style.com and memorising every collection that is emerging from hour to hour.  At LFW, so far out of countless Instagrams and videos, what caught most people’s eyes weren’t the high octane collections at the on-schedule shows, but a wee sneak preview of Opening Ceremony’s upcoming collaboration with the René Magritte Foundation as part of their ongoing fascination with all things Belgian.  It was announced at Carol Lim and Humberto Leon’s insightful talk with Imran Amed  as part of their BOFLIVE series and on Saturday at the Opening Ceremony store in London Covent Garden, we got to see the collab.  I didn’t really know what to expect – maybe a cheeky play on Magritte’s super famous works like The Treachery of Images or The Son of Man on some accessories and some tees.  Not this all-encompassing and complete integration of Magritte’s iconic (and not so well known) paintings with neoprene dresses, bomber jackets and sweaters.  There were also prints created out of Magritte motifs like the umbrella or faces to place on jeans.

I love that they’ve opted for a mix of the super well known works such as Scheherazade and The Lovers and then less overly-exposed paintings like King’s Museum and The Blow to the Heart.  They haven’t just been plonked on to separates willy nilly either.  They wrap around garments in a seamless way.  They’re placed in a way that actually works with the silhouettes.  The shoes got the Insta peeps going, particularly the Vans.  The Birkenstocks could also sway a few naysayers.  Manolo Blahnik have also partnered up with OC (I believe for the first time?) to do a pair of shoes that will feature The Blow to the Heart painting – they weren’t available to preview.  I wondered whether it was the art, the artist or the sheer recognisability factor that upped the Like factor.   That’s Lim and Leon in a nutshell though.  They do clothes that taps into popular culture in a way that transcends the realms of high fashion.  And it’s not by going for whatever is mainstream of populist either.  At the Business of Fashion, I just kept on thinking, “Whatever it is, they get it.”

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25 comments

  3. Adore Magritte, love anything with eyes on it = win! It’s posts like this that DO make me care just a little bit about LFW still.

  4. I love the quirkiness and originality here. I’ll be on the look out for these designs on the streets of London. Also, saw you today at Burberry. Very exciting 🙂

    Joana x When You Dream

  8. You said instagram! And I can’t believe I missed following you. I’ve added you now. Aren’t you relieved!

    I enjoy London Fashion Week a lot and I am sad that I am not there. 🙁

    I saw a pic of this OC collection and I put it on my instagram this morning actually. Then I saw your post on bloglovin’ and I just had to head over. You are right – there is a mix of well known and not so well known work on the pieces and they do wrap around seamlessly.
    🙂 Loving your photos.
    X
    Kiri
    http://www.fashionblender.com.au
    http://www.facebook.com/FashionBlender

  12. The clothes look boring, and it’s turned the genuine unique perspective of Rene Magritt into cheap merchandise. There is nothing original or stimulating about this collaboration, it just smacks of lazy image placement to make a quick dollar…….enough said!

  16. Ingenious collection, bringing classic surreal art works into a contemporary world where there are too many mundane clothing and not enough thought out wearable art – which in my opinion is what fashion should be.

  17. This is a very special collection full of art, “pure fashion”. It definitely makes a statement and recreates a different world, superb!

  20. Even though at moments you stop and think that some of the pieces appear as ‘just’ printed Magritte artwork on a tee, it’s done in a way that makes you go crazy – probably due to the awareness on details.

    I remember watching their BOF live round table with Humberto & Carol, and how they spoke about their thrift shopping and love for details… If you think now – it really shows: the urge to create a whole look (with the white sheets tied around the head, to the position of the mannequins, and the product placement in their amazing Covent Garden store) – every inch about the store was surrealist, not just the garments.

    xx d.

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  23. Some years ago I went to the Magritte museum in Bruxelles. And wow this collab is amazing! I would love to wear every single item! Woowza!

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