Last year’s performance The Times called ‘a distillation of the French Baroque spirit in all its ultraelegant subtlety’ but I could not help seeing neo classical etherium. The only image I can find that captures something of the feel of that first scene with pas de duex is NYCB’s photo of Robert Fairchild and Wendy Whelan in Opus 19 / The Dreamer by Henry Leutwyler – an image that was all over the city last year, and has such resonance it is still in my mind.

It’s a not dissimilar spirit I see being captured in the collections of Kirrily Johnston. Echoes of inspiration abound from dance and movement by the likes of Martha Graham. I’ve been interested in Kirrily’s work since her first collection in 2004; for the conceptual nature of her draping and the unique way she looks at the body within a constructed form. I also shared the same crazy landlady with her that year and had similarly just moved from Melbourne to Sydney, though as is a neighbour’s want, we only ever exchanged friendly hellos. Her latest collection continues to ‘think outside of the square’.

This season’s collection, Totem, sees the infusion of South Pacific totem-pole imagery into digitally printed and tightly defined silhouettes. She is never afraid of colour or pattern and uses it to express the very rhythm of a culture; repeating or bursting forth on a central bodice panel or imaginitively cut construction. Totem also draws on the influence of the Modern Primitive and Bauhaus movements. In 2008 it was Afghanistan and Zarafshan native textiles that we saw as accents on the body. This most recent story seems to carry on directly from her 2009 collection; Polyrhythms. In drumming this term describes an African drum sound where different rhythms are played together to make one sound and it is this, along with Miles Davis and African textiles, which inspired that collection.

In Tina’s own words about Polyrhythms:

I wanted to create a playful collection where all the styles looked like they belonged to the same family but they all had their own quirks and eccentricities. I suppose playing with unity and diversity at the same time. I love multiculturalism and designing this collection was like getting a bunch of people from different social classes and cultural backgrounds and putting them into one harmonious space.

Last year’s first showing by the 24 year old garnered this reaction from Godfrey Deeny, Fashion Wire Daily; “…the best debut collection by any designer on the planet this year… this was the type of debut performance that would win a standing ovation in Milan or Paris and the sort of show that designers in their mid-thirties very, very occasionally turn out after working 70 hour weeks for 15 years with Miuccia Prada or John Galliano.”

In growing his aesthetic this season there is much cross wrapping of the body and extensive draping. It’s also great to see the continuing evolution of the digitally manipulated print. There are echoes of the glories of Fortuny’s ‘delphos’ gown, casting a contemporary Australian beach-side sensibility upon a resplendently classical theme. It also alludes to the idea of banding around the body; as in classic 80’s Leger.

‘to create anything you had to believe in failure simply because you had to be prepared to go through an idea without any fear’

‘I try to, with all my ability, I try to make ideas happen…ideas that could change life’…

‘we made ugliness beautiful’

‘i felt that world encouraged me to look at the world in a different way…and what allowed me to understand the world was to be able to understand how to tell stories’

Here he is with Vivienne Westwood in the shop they opened together at 430 King’s Road in 1971,  photo by William English

London milliner Philip Treacy speaks briefly about his collaborations with McQueen. The working relationship between the two was long-standing. The number of headpieces was vast in every collection, and like McQueen’s inspirations they were many and varied in theme. It is interesting to look back and see just how much McQueen drew on these collaborations, but also how skillfully he orchestrated their inclusion, and directed the theatrical productions.

Here’s a Lace manufacturer’s sample book, one of many in the vaults. Some of their vast collection is also online here.

His collections were usually controversial, but that term goes nowhere to describing the immense skill and intellect behind a man who is responsible for the consistent and unyielding elevation of his fashion into the realm of art. He influenced a generation, and not just in his homeland of Britain, but in the minds of designers and those who followed his work from the far reaches of the world.

He will be greatly missed, and has left a magnificent legacy. His final collection has an ironic bitter-sweet and eerily poignant emphasis; the beauty of the butterfly. images from style.com. Below is a clip of his Paris fall 2006 collection with Kate Moss in hologram.

Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin. ♦

Another view of the Caroll Christmas windows at Bergdorf Goodman.

And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing ♣

♦♣ Alice; Lewis Caroll ‘Alice in Wonderland’ [D. Appleton. New York 1866].

If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see? ≡

It is Caroll season! Yes, it is also carol season, and Bergdorf Goodman’s window displays for Christmas are celebrating both the single and double ‘L’ varieties with another spectacular array of windows into other worlds, specifically the worlds from the celebrated children’s classic ‘Alice in Wonderland‘ by Lewis Caroll.

In a delightful throwback to the Tim Burton exhibition at MoMA, and the upcoming release of his latest directorial work, Alice in Wonderland features in all the glory of characters, events and environments.

The windows are so full for this presentation I am posting them in installments. Here the work of Alexander McQueen and Marc Jacobs thrill on the marble tiles of the palace of the Queen of Hearts [and Clubs], and in the staircases and journey portals of Alice herself.

≡ Spoken by Alice; Lewis Caroll ‘Alice in Wonderland’ [D. Appleton. New York 1866]

Sandra Backlund is a textile artist, a fashion sculptor and a knitter. Her work is structurally convoluting, winding around the body, or interacting with it in some other ingenious way. The voluminous shapes evolve out of her fascination with the human body. Backlund is ever intrigued with the prospect of ‘highlighting, distorting or transforming’ . The sculptural garments evolve from a simple brick shape that is added onto, multiplied and attached in different ways.

These strange forms of soft woolliness and cavernous hollows make you want to crawl inside them, whether to hide or to be seen all the more. There is a quality within them that reaches into the senses and draws a response. This is not surprising given the exploratory nature of Backlund’s design development. The garments crawl and grow around the body. It’s a truly bespoke interaction, which is inherently a knit-wear quality to heart. Backlund is taking that humble knit chain and giving us something altogether considered, explored and exciting. Watch for her work and you will see the evolution of an artist on the fashion stage.