September 25, 2017 |
Garments tossed and turned and stitched to hold “just there”: the stream of ideas that came out of the Y/Project show last night could have fuelled half a dozen collections for your “average designer”. Glenn Martens is not your average designer.
This was the first show for the Belgian designer after winning the coveted Andam prize for design, beating 13 other design finalists. Much was expected.
The clothes were a tongue-in-cheek gluing together of historical references and rave culture: think BBC costume department X ’50s tea party x big night out amongst other amazing mash-ups. Pretty terrific.
A mohair cardigan fastened on the skew (second button down goes into last button hole and so on) in pink was beautiful; cue stylish kids aping the look the very next day. Two stripy cotton pique polo shirts – worn one over the other – had a grab of fabric pulled and fed through two diamanté brooches to mimic bonkers cloth nipples. It was funny and witty, and the results of some seriously arch styling.
Trousers, jeans and skirts didn’t escape the rework and came with slits and curves cut out to expose skin or more layering. A pair of grey jeans had turn-ups, which ran up and down the leg; yellow leather boots were cut in a helix.
The strongest look? It’s hard to say, but take some time to see the seemingly random strings of pearls machined on to a nude net dress. It looked insane. And very beautiful.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd Evans
