Fashion Week Showrooms: Gayeon Lee, Kevin Geddes, Nafsika Skourti and REIN
Gayeon Lee SS16
Gayeon Lee takes us by way of the hazy impression of an Italian summer, that, specifically of Federico Clavarino’s travel photobook Italia O Italia. Just as impressions pale in our mental weather, her SS16 collection lands in a tonal palette, with variables of dark and light that composed an unassuming study of chiaroscuro. A recurring theme is one adorned by burnished and matte buttons, bishop sleeves and puckered waistlines. Braced in Lee’s metallic orange hues, the ample tailoring unveiled as startlingly sinuous. Leave it to the wisdom of daylight.
Kevin Geddes SS16
When the nearing London winter would finally conclude, spring may be, for Kevin Geddes, an act of bravura thawing the icy drama with a hushed resolution. I’m talking about the Evil-Knievel-meets-Japanese-retro-anime kind of resolution, but crafted in easy lines and earthy tones. With the delight of sports-inspired rubber KG logo, the female heroism is charged with no less energy, but reticent and gentle in its own array. Spells are better left in whispers.
Nafsika Skourti SS16
Though tense under the spotlight of escalating international crisis, let us be reminded that being a vital manufacturer for garment conglomerates, Jordan is much in its element when Fashion comes calling. But of course, being Jordanian, it is never devoid of social relevance. For SS16, Jordan-based Nafsika Skourti ventured slightly outside her previously desaturated outlook, and staged such “fashionable protest” with her camouflage-themed Temporary Security: soft in form, resolute in spirit. Bilingual text enunciates an intuitive political self, up against backgrounds furnished by derelict Hollywood movie props. I for one, would long to see the “beautiful activism” prevail in and outside the wearable dialogues of Jordan.
REIN SS16
As many collections for SS16 couldn’t help retrieving the rosiness of sunlight and green leaves (though hardly blameful after the non-existent English summer), REIN marches in with an all-black statement that does not pronounce rigidness, instead, a uniform, necessary stubbornness we could all contemplate on, on the thesis of female empowerment.
Laser cutting reveals maze-like patterns through tunic dresses, jackets and matte suede, there stands a body and a girl who is the helmer of her own skin but don’t ever think that’s all there is to her assets.
