Witch Off

I'm almost grateful that the sort of genre-obsessed pedantic intricacies that I sometimes get a whiff of in music blogs doesn't exist in fashion.  We're airy fairy.  We keep it loose n' easy.  "It's cute!" or "Ew" – that's fashion folk's final bottom line.  Alright, I perhaps debased and simplified fashion folk far too much there but honestly, when you get into the rabbit warren of YouTube comments, forums and music blogs/sites comment infernal arguments, you're scared you may never come out again and that should it exist in amongst fashion to the same exacting degree, I'm sure you'd have fashion bitches wanting to invent ways of physically slapping other fash bitches' faces HARD over the internet. 

I especially look upon the Witch House/Drag/Haunted House furor that came about last year with trepidation.  Salem is one notable example (fash folk will know them as the band that invaded Givenchy S/S 11's show soundtrack) and Creep with their song Days featuring The xx's Romy Madley-Croft is supposedly another recent example.  From the guffaws and blows over the slightly ludicrous notion of a music genre being born out of dubious ties to the occult, I've been grouping up some fashion witchiness seen this season in New York.  Fashion genre it may not be but somehow all three of these collections by Pamela Love, Jeremy Laing and Complexgeometries all gave me vibes that had me drawing comparisons with the supposed wichiness of the music that I've been into over the last year.

I say 'vibes' because that's about as loose and vague as it gets when it comes to drawing similarities between a music genre that may or may not exist and the aesthetic of clothes.  I'll just style it out and say that there's a possible likelihood that the aforementioned bands may have been playing on the designers' iTunes when they were in the studio.  Still, witchiness manifests in different ways and so first up is jewellery designer Pamela Love.  Her association with the positive/spiritual side of the occult makes this collection not so much a surprise but more of a nudge in the direction that she was always destined to go towards.  The crystal growth elements again make for pieces that look like you happed upon them in a damp cave and there you declare "I've found treasure!"  Love Lovers will also be pleased to know that a collab with Topshop is on its way if price was previously prohibitive. 

Jeremy Laing flooded his clothes with light at his A/W 11-12 presentation, to contrast with the dark ambiance residing in his clothes.  There was a richness to the textures that he chose to work with what with surface detailing being quite an intrinsicly important element to Laing's work.  This time round he looked up at a lunar eclipse to inform his collection yet there was nothing that went out of space to the moon itself.  It made me think of star-gazing through the gaps inbetween trees in the woods being wrapped up in this plethora of holy, crumpled, dyed and cratered pieces…

I almost missed Complexgeometries because we drove by West Side's Gentleman's Club thinking it was just a down n' out bar/strip joint… nope, that was the venue for Complexgeometries A/W 11-12 presentation. Complexgeometries pieces are clothes that need you to try them on, to integrate them with the way you wear things because they have a slippery ever-changing and versatile quality about them so it's quite hard to explain the strengths of their pieces when you're faced with models wearing the pieces.  The proof is in the future wearing when they hit stores and a draped top, dress or a cardigan makes its way out of the original strip club context and into a multitude of outfits as I can attest with pieces of theirs that I wear to death (thank god their stuff is supremely washing machine-able…)

Don't ask me why it's taken me THIS long to post their shoe collab with LD Tuttle aka shoes that I walk miles and miles in.  I'm talking about LD Tuttle's shoes in general, though I'm told these monster platform/dino heels are not as bad as they look…   

Bargainous no?