Elms Lesters Painting Rooms – AmeliasMagazine

Orla Kiely A/W 2013 by Laura Hickman

Ireland’s Orla Kiely has firmly established her eponymous London label over the seasons with 1960s silhouettes, playful prints and rich fabrics. While the look book each season is never going to shock or win any awards for pushing the boundaries of fashion, style fans head to Orla for staple vintage pieces that are playful and pretty. But to judge Orla against the likes of Azzedine Alaïa or Hussein Chalayan would be missing the point. Always a nod to decades past, previous presentations have included film screenings directed by Gia Coppola and Mercedes Helnwein.

All photography by Matt Bramford

This season’s presentation took place in the intriguing Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, a gallery off Denmark Street that often hosts fashion press days; its labyrinth of rooms lend themselves well to presentations of this nature. A long arm of the upper floor had been transformed into a retro working-girl’s space that could have been lifted straight from a scene from Mad Men or working-class hero flick Made in Dagenham.

Orla Kiely A/W 2013 by Dom&Ink

Numerous models appeared at the entrance to the elongated space wearing this season’s take on Orla’s signature looks, as an unobtrusive soundtrack made up mostly of the clatter of a typewriter played. Beehive barnets piled high atop models’ heads. Orla’s girls were superbly cast, more as actresses than runway models: loading typewriters, filing paperwork, nattering quietly and changing ‘shifts’ regularly to allow other models to enter the showcase.

Orla Kiely A/W 2013 by Laura Hickman

Attention to detail was key, with design perverts like me eyeing up mid-century Scandinavian furniture, Smiths‘ clocks and old graphic signage as much as the outfits themselves.

Statement features this season include high-waisted dresses with girly a-line hems, flocked coats with swirling patterns, pleated and pointed collars, embroidered squirrels and a-line overcoats using Orla Kiely‘s signature shape.

Orla Kiely A/W 2013 by Dom&Ink

This kind of thoughtful, preciously executed presentation is the way forward. With never-ending developments in technology and record numbers at catwalk shows, presentations allow you to fully gage the nuances of collections and document them effectively, rather than the scramble to photograph, tweet, Facebook, Vine, MySpace, tumblr, Foursquare and Grindr your way through a catwalk show.

Orla Kiely A/W 2013 by Laura Hickman

Another infinitely wearable collection that will satisfy the label’s fans en masse.

Written by Matt Bramford on Tuesday February 19th, 2013 3:46 pm

Categories ,1950s, ,1960s, ,A/W 2013, ,A/W’13, ,beehive, ,Dom&Ink, ,Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, ,ireland, ,Laura Hickman, ,lfw, ,London Fashion Week, ,Mad Men, ,Made in Dagenham, ,Matt Bramford, ,Orla Kiely, ,Presentation, ,review, ,Smiths clocks, ,vintage

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Orla Kiely S/S 2014 by Laura Hickman.

I forgot to apply for tickets to what was a very oversubscribed show, so it was lucky that I saw any of Orla Kiely‘s presentation this season – right at the end, when I managed to scoot in with some Polish friends I had run into in the queue outside the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms.

Orla Kiely S/S 2014 by Yelena Bryksenkova.

Once again the label had set up an intricate set, with digital prints of the wide African plains plastered across the walls: for S/S 2014 the Orla girl is on safari, dressed in immaculate style. She wears cute separates with a subtle military influence in the form of jaunty berets, epaulette detailing and handy patch pockets. Camo colours are given a seasonal uplift with injections of powder pink, tomato orange and dusty blue. Subtle prints come in the form of a ditsy pink lion scattered across a sweet summer dress and bolder zebra and giraffe designs. Origami elephants and rhinos adorn shoulder bags and shoppers, whilst tiger faces feature on the cutest of leather purses. The set was more cluttered than the wonderful typing pool of last season, with objects artfully arranged to suggest the theme and the girls clustered around a fireside, relaxing with a book, or painting. For the models it must be a very fun show to take part in. And did I mention the collaboration with Clarks? I’m already lusting after a pair of patent platformed bi-colour Orla Mariannes.

Orla Kiely S/S 2014 by Laura Hickman.