Buckle Up

“If you get the right bag, an It bag, a hit bag, your label moves into a different league.”  So said the fictional British designer from that guilty-pleasure read from years back, Fashion Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones (free e-book to skim read if you want to kill a few hours).  Since publication nearly ten years ago, bags have certainly shifted away from requiring a waiting list sanctioned “IT” status but certainly having a hit bag within your brand’s arsenal is still an enviable thing and in some cases, does move a label into a different league.

When Christopher Kane launched a fully fleshed out range of safety buckle bags two seasons ago, it neatly coincided with the different league that Kane had entered as a brand backed by Kering.  It’s no coincident that the first you see when you walk into Kane’s new-ish store on Mount Street is a wall of his buckled beauties sitting neatly on perspex shelves.  They also grabbed your eye on the catwalk at his precisely sensual A/W 15-6 show, where over half the models came trooping down clutching a buckled bag of sorts.  And so this season sees the Kane’s signature buckle – a feature trickled down from his explosive Central Saint Martins MA graduate collection from nearly a decade ago. – fastened over ruffled totes, metallic mirrored leather box bags and rucksacks (MatchesFashion have a few of the metallic spangly ones).

I happily took the printed croc cross-body bag, made electric with spherical corners, inspired by DNA structures and paired it up with that very first point of inspiration – a bandaged and lace dress from that breakthrough Christopher Kane collection, which was a recent find on eBay.  Ok, it isn’t a dress to pig out on dumplings in but I’m filing this one under the “archive” category.  I thought about the sort of tropes too that Kane’s work has produced over the years.  The buckle is one visual signifier of his work but so are textures like velvet, metallic tinsel and various treatments of leathers and patents and generally taking you aback with the unexpected.  Buckle up.  The next phase of Kane’s trajectory will surely be one hell of a ride.

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IMG_9853Christopher Kane bandage dress and Comme des Garcons striped top

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IMG_9976Louis Vuitton jacket, Rochas shirt and Topshop Unique dress

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IMG_9950Christopher Kane sheer shirt and vintage Courrèges velvet dungarees and O Thongthai bracelets

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IMG_0012Xander Zhou tinsel jacket and Ammerman Schlösberg coat

9 comments

  1. Pingback: Buckle Up | ModeKiosk

  3. I would love to own an “it” bag (which could also boost my confidence in what I wear) one day… A bag that could be worn with any outfit and it could also complete or elevate any look!

    I love the unique buckle and spherical corner hardware of your bag 🙂

    http://keslywinona.blogspot.jp/

  7. I still remember that first Kane collection – it was probably directly responsible for the brief bandage dress revival (and Herve Leger label resurrection) that followed c. 2007, because that show was so fresh and everyone wanted a piece of it. By which time, of course, Kane himself had moved on to other ideas.

    I love that you wore the blue bandage dress with that stripy shirt underneath. It’s a great way to de-sexify the dress a little (still oomphy but not as much unadulterated va-va-voom as the runway styling) while still keeping it visually interesting. It’s also a great way to make a dress wearable/”appropriate” during the daytime (speaking from personal experience here).

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