Mood board: Before hybrid garments were the silhouette du jour, there was Junya Watanabe. The Japanese designer is renowned for his spliced, mash-up aesthetic, which sees him deconstruct and piece garments back together with the precision of a punk tailor. Watanabe adopted more of a couturier’s sensibility for S/S 2019 – with a spring offering presented to a spectacularly uplifting Queen soundtrack – which fused his signature denim and patchwork tartan with voluminous tulle petticoats, evening gown silhouettes and pleated volumes. Burgeoning Parisian designers like Marine Serre and Y/Project’s Glenn Martens have taken a couture-inspired approach to their spring collections. Amongst new streetwear norms and sporty aesthetics, are these proportions the new rebellion?
Best in show: Distinctive shapes and silhouettes were cut and spliced together. Take a pair of dungarees, one leg a straight jean silhouette, the other a petticoat of voluminous net, a stripe t-shirt spliced together with a pretty puffball dress. Elsewhere there were patched denim overcoats, bias cut gowns dressed down with t-shirts and tattoo motif body suits, and band t-shirts that will all sing on the shop floor.
Finishing touches: Just in case those couture shapes and swathes of tulle and net got a little too saccharine, models strode the catwalk to Queen’s The Millionaire Waltz and Somebody to Love, in highlighter hue cropped wigs, punk dog collar necklaces and stacked Buffalo boots. §
