With the afternoon sun peering softly through the corrugated plastic roof of a tin shed within the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the muted light echoed that of the beachside town of St Ives on England's dramatic Cornish coast. This was the starting point for Paula Gerbase's A/W collection. Here, the former Savile Row designer was inspired by the remote fishing village's community of 20th century artists, including the modernist curvatures of former resident sculptor, Barbara Hepworth. The result was a loosening of Gerbase's utilitarian design signatures, appropriating artists' smocks into swinging tunics and caped coats, while her pants widened to meet fisherman proportions, as funnel necks were inserted into shirting. In short, these were clothes that extended a creative freedom in their loosened proportions. Gerbase may have headed menswear label Kilgour for five years, but in this instance her technical skill-set and sophisticated fabric knowledge (she even mounted the season's star samples into her show notes), enabled the designer to cut an effortless ease into her silhouettes, seen through a raglan 'sweatshirt' of marbled boucle alpaca, or one navy look fashioned entirely from waterproof polyester, engineered to give a smocked appearance. Subtle nautical cues continued with her models' salt-tousled hair, and ribbed jumpers, modelled after traditional merino fishing knits. A naturalist mood that also seeped into her colour palate of navy, white, moss, plum and slate grey - all hues apparently well represented in the works of artists' of that region and era.
Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
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