London S/S12: Shimmer at Christopher Kane

For his first looks for S/S12, Christopher Kane played with the seams of his structured dresses, shorts and skirts, creating angular and boxy shapes from the shimmering muted peach, blue and green brocade fabrics. Dresses woven with fine gold and silver threading glimmered as a new covetable tailoring shape emerged: folded, exposed and removed seams gave the pieces an ethereal, winged-like quality, allowing them to take flight. Woven into the dresses exposed seams were delicate metallic organza strips which, while showing a bit of the models flesh, offset the heaviness of the brocade and instilled the pieces with a soft and mutable elegance.

Oversized cricket sweaters paired with pale sequin mini-skirts paid homage to outdoor gym classes came next, before Kane then treated his audience to an English garden in full bloom.  Evolving the flowers found on the heavy leather dresses from A/W10, for S/S12 Kane overlaid metallic organza piece by piece, creating delicate and slightly flesh-bearing dresses, blouses and jackets with carefully appliquéd blooming flowers borrowed from either a scrapbook or collage collection. The overall effect of the magnetic floral appliques was breathtaking, as the shimmering gold organza shone through the marigolds and daisies like the sun at midday.

For denim, Kane encrusted the knees of frayed jeans and shorts with heavy beading, as well as for mini skirts paired with crisp white shirts. The dense beading and pale metallic colour pallet was applied to models corresponding rubber-soled sandals, the collections sole shoe, giving the tailored pieces a relaxed and casual feel and adding a bit of weight to the light chiffon and organza dresses and blouses. The final pieces of structured blush silk shift dresses with heavily beaded collars and pockets had a vintage, Sixties sensibility and were standout.

Text by Zoe Alexander