Squinting in the Sun

Peter Jensen's latest lookbook images for his A/W 11-12 collection 'Anna Karina' has been doing the blog/web rounds with ferocious internet domino-effect speed and somehow not showing or presenting his collection physically in any fashion week gave him a newfound freedom to send out the lovin' through images that will be Tumblr-ed, Liked and in a way, distributed down an inspiration chain that standard catwalk images wouldn't.  On one of London's cherished sunny days I went over to Peter's Dalston studio, which some of you might be familiar with if you ventured out to his sample sale the week before to take a proper look at the clothes, which along with Autumn de Wilde's photography, Shirley Kurata's styling, models/muso chicks Tennessee Thomas (Bunny is her middle name – it was fated that her and Jensen should collaborate) and Diva Dompe, make up one major component of those visually-slaying images. 

Weirdly though the collection itself is wholly unconnected with the listless, sun-drenched L.A. portrayed in de Wilde's lookbook images.  Inspired by French New Wave muse Anna Karina who was once married to Jean-Luc Goddard, there are 60s inflections running throughout the collection and in a way the twee preppiness married up with some of the wintry textures, could have easily felt out of step with all that expanse of mysterious Los Angeles blue sky.  Yet the components all managed to come together to tell a cinematic tale.  The shots look like film stills fallen out of something some vague contemporary setting with deliberately retro undertones… kind of like how you can ever date The Royal Tenanbaums precisely -  a mish mash of time/setting…

Textures such as shirts flecked with candy-floss-esque mohair, tissue paper-like rosettes (a hark back to ruffled white hoodie of his S/S 08 collection) and boucle tweed coats add depth to those recognisable A-line shapes and retroisms…

The combination between pillarbox red and powder blue that is dotted throughout the collection really weights the collection down from the whimsical territory that Jensen often steps in.  It's particularly effective in a cable knit chunky jumper and a simple miniskirt that also references the way that New Wave simplicity…

Prints don't go amiss in this collection with a Google Map image of L.A. repeated into this print here, emphasising the expanse of the city where one could get so very easily lost in.  I suppose one of the driving points of these Autumn de Wilde's images, is that you'd want to get a little lost in L.A., driving around, listening to Elliott Smith…

Believe it or not, the day I visited Peter's studio in Dalston, London, the sky was really THIS blue as well…

The film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg feeds directly into this print here…

What's a Peter Jensen collection without the bunny popping up…?

There's definitely a bookish yet secretly seductive film character nestled in the girl depicted here in the Harris Tweed ensemble.  Maybe she catches the curiosity of the dandy in a tree-motif jumper…

…who likes a shot of apple green…

…and finally they meet in the hallway and just stand there very very close together without saying anything nor is there any physical contact between them and they play a long and hard staring game….

Enough of my poor fictional scripting.  Look up onto the ceiling of Peter's studio and ye shall find memorable pieces such as this S/S 08 beaded jacket or a S/S 07 rose covered skirt which perhaps will make their way over to the very big Peter Jensen 10 Year Anniversary exhibition at the Design Museum in Copenhagen this summer.  With an accompanying book, the exhibition will look back five of the twenty muses, who Peter has been inspired by for his collections with rooms constructed for the temperament of each muse.  That's reason enough to make it over to Copenhagen Fashion Week in August.