Going On a Holiday: Part I

People asking me about 'trends' normally makes my mouth go into a grimace… with my nose wrinkling up as if a whiff of strong cheese has entered the room.  However at Stockholm Fashion Week at the end of the second day when a mic was shoved in my face probing about trends, with only a handful of shows, it was already clear that Swedish designers are in dire need of a holiday to somewhere hot.  Or at least their collections are conveying that.  Ah I get ya… you put out a cute skirt or a lovely hat and I'm supposed to part with my dosh so the design team of x designer/label can go and book themselves a nice flight off somewhere far, far away.  I'm down with that.  Just so long as you give yourself a month and come back and continue to pump out designs…  

Somehow, I've managed to group up these 'holiday' (that's summer vacation btw, as opposed to Christmas hols…) collections that I've seen (apologies if it's a little on the slow side with posting shows…) into mini trips that I guess fall neatly into the trend category.  That said, how each designer steers the course of their holiday is vastly different from one another so I can only assume that a collective lack of sunlight has made some of the designers at Stockholm Fashion Week do some serious globe spinning (spin a globe, pick a place and promise yourself you'll go there… or in this case, make a collection on it…?).  I think someone spoke of the several degrees of abstraction when dealing with cultural appropriation in fashion in my Guatemalan dress post (it wasn't Mexican…), something which I agree is far more interesting than simply injecting traditional dress of other countries directly into collections, so it is fortunate that all of these designers do put in several degrees into their work… more parts to come later on…

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Dagmar, who I shamelessly used to as a means of illustration in this post, actually decided to show as part of Amsterdam Fashion Week this season but to give a cheer to their home crowd, they did a small presentation which was a far more relaxed affair, especially if we've got a Brazilian band on the go.

It slotted right into their Rio de Janeiro favela-inspired collection. 
The architecture of the favelas with its cubist shapes and patchwork
patterns of the crazy roofing figures into the knitwear as well as the
grey tones.  The burst of life and I suppose the 'Brazlian' flavour, to
generalise injects itself into the colour, especially a very Susie-esque
bright fluoro coral, as well as a bird motif that found its way onto faintly printed chiffon and plumage-esque shapes that twist their way into tops.  The ease of wear is never lost though even with a theme that could be taken so literally…meaning more great knitwear pieces that are ripe for summer nights in Brazil or elsewhere…

Two birds flew to the presentation to give their seal of approval.  Oh, and the colour of square knit is that aforementioned fluoro coral… give me any shade of a highlighter 5-pack in an unexpected texture and I'm a happy bunny…or err…birdie…

Normally models at static presentations don't talk to me even though I always think they should just to break the awkward moment of gawking journalists inspecting them at such close proximity.  However this girl here very discreetly said that she loved my blog… and it turns out… and here's my doh moment… that she was Yukimi Nagano, lead singer of Little Dragon whose debut album I had on non-stop last year.  Not sure why insanely cool lead singers of bands are checking out blogs but I'm chuffed all the same.  She also very kindly emailed a tip-off about some local designers so I'll be investigating that further…

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Ok, Hope actually were more inspired by Swedish teenagers frolicking in the countryside hence why there was a set of silver birches but these leather over sized floppy hats which I didn't do a fantastic job of photographing are surely holiday fodder that makes me want to try and overcome the forehead sweating problem (sweat gland laser zapping?), suck it up and don a leather hat in the sun just because these ones are so pleasingly floppy…

They also indulged in the prevalence of all things camel with soft leather figuring in as a bonus…

I especially love the material used in these long sweeping skirts.  All long length pieces have either always been too heavy or drenched in a S&M context… these seem to have tapped into the 'softness' of leather and given them a freeing sort of movement…

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This season, there was a newcomer on the SFW joint… well at least, they're a newcomer to me.  Lagom started as a collaboration between designer Nette Sanstr√∂m and musician Daniel Adams-Ray in 2005 as a venture to create clothes for Adams-Ray's band.  Now with an extra member on the team, Jakob Hedberg, the label is a full integrated unisex label where the masculine rubs onto the feminine and vice versa with geometric cuts at play with a frivolity of colour usage.  For S/S 11, they're seeing a new dawn, one that rises in Nairobi in Kenya.  Colours and certain patterns are obviously derived from their inspiration source in both indirect and direct ways… woven fabrics come straight from Kenya and Tanzania in their raw form but in more abstracted ways, Lagom have injected leopard, giraffe and colibri hummingbird prints with the addition of graphic shapes and an almost cartoonishly sun-saturated palette.  It was an early morning show and given that I knew nothing about Lagom, I came out with sleep erased from eyes, fully refreshed and feeling more human… put it to the power of fashion globe trotting…

On a personal selfish note, I just checked out their web store and they have a few choice pieces on sale that even at original prices are more than reasonable.  Let's hope this is maintained for their S/S 11 collection…

Another one to add to the headgear wants list..

Nothing like a delicious cauldron of ice cream colours to revive the brain… I love the addition of the copper beads on these woven suede shoes…

The ribbed suede back section on this shirt won me over despite inability to master naturalistic-looking animal prints…

Better luck with this asymmetric orange-red blazer.  This exact shade has been on my mind for a while with Whyred and Carin Wester A/W 10-11 both featuring this shade… but in elongated blazer form, it packs an extra power-jacket punch…