pierre garroudi – lfw – ss11 – sketch – jenny robins
Illustration by Jenny Robins
The crowd for Pierre Garroudi’s London Fashion Week Haute Couture Collection SS11 show was super eclectic for sure. And the entire collection was even surer super electric blue. The venue was under Arch 6 on Crucifix Lane near Guy’s Hospital. Back stage there was definite drippage and industrial damp, more about but the exhibition space was very bright with expressionist paintings randomly placed on the walls. I was able to nab a seat on the photographers’ steps at the end, so I could see the catwalk in entirety.
Sketch of the crowd pre-show…
So into my optimal view came 22 models all with amazing sculptural hair pieces or hats and shoes that had been adorned with a variety of items most often plastic flowers but also toe dividers, combs, chopsticks, plastic guns and snakes and god knows what else all painted the same uniform metallic grey as the shoes.
Here are my catwalk sketches:
In fact the hair, accessories and shoes outperformed the clothes for me on all but a few standout outfits. The nautical themed hair especially took my breath away, a hammerhead shark, enormous steam ships and all, there was a feeling of immense Regency powdered wig to some and Tribal head-dress to others. One model even had a mini ferris wheel on her head. The jewellery was likewise regal and eclectic, incorporating more found items, buttons and feathers. Here are some photos taken on my Blackberry, I felt comicly under endowed sitting with all the real photographers, but then, they didn’t have sketchbooks as, erm, full as mine.
Garroudi has clearly created this show with some amazing collaborative talent in the hair; cards were given out by Zed Nevada, for bespoke hair styling but I’m not sure if the other hair stylists listed were with him or separate, I also met Jan Knibbs who had collaborated on some of the neck pieces.
The dresses themselves were mostly made up of intricately textured and folded fabrics and ribbons, at worst these did look like bathmats draped on the models, but at best there were some really beautiful pieces. Almost all backless and whatever the technical fashion word is for exhibiting side boob, with exciting sculptural things going on around the shoulders. I think the most successful dresses were those that used a more classical shape and incorporated it into the intricate fabric structures, a particularly crowd and Jenny pleasing outfit combined a sort of romantic crepe cape garment with an enormous layered tutu skirt. Stunning.
I did mention right that all of these items were entirely electric blue? I’m sure you can see that from the pictures of course but I feel like it needs re-stating. So nice to see colour when our shops are full of the AW10 universally grey palettes I suppose. Last year, Garroudi’s show in the same space was entirely white, obviously when he decides to do a colour theme, he really does. Even the blue mini cupcakes were being handed out by beautiful impeccably suited gentlemen with blue in their hair.
I feel like I should make some kind of pun about having the blues. But that would be inappropriate. This is a happiness blue, a positive and fun collection, with the plastic bits and buttons incorporated it’s reminiscent of dressing up one’s Barbie doll in things found round the house, then spraying her fluorescent blue of course. Mum might not be best pleased at what you did to her bath mat of course.
Categories ,fashion, ,illustration, ,London Fashion Week, ,Pierre Garroudi, ,review, ,Sketch
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