Photo courtesy Mary Katrantzou.
“A FANTASIA”
In composition, a fantasia is a free improvisatory musical piece, based on familiar melodies, but combined to create something new. Derived from the root of fantasy or fancy, a fantasia can also define a work in which the author's imagination roves unrestricted, mixing different themes and motifs. Finally, it can mean a plunge into the realm of the bizarre, or the unreal. For Autumn/Winter 2017, Mary Katrantzou takes her inspiration from these notions of fantasia, the idea of mixing and melding different worlds, themes and ideas, cross-pollinating different kingdoms of thought. The collection is a fantasy, a fairytale, with archetypal motifs pulled from the respective wardrobes of heroes and heroines, charming princes and damsels in distress. An interplay of male and female is expressed through garments that mix tailoring details with embellishment, menswear fabrics with florals. The combination of these two halves of the wardrobe results in fantastical fusions: menswear checked wools become metallic tulle overlays, cut into straight chesterfield styles and embellished with perspex flower motifs, not a meeting but a melding of him with her. The fantasy of the work of the artist M.C. Escher leads to an exploration of geometric and naturalistic forms, melded into one. Graphic swans motifs tessellate, forming a new take on houndstooth check in precious jacquards. They sometimes seamlessly fade into windowpane checks, or leap into three-dimensions in laser-cut mirrored panels, painstakingly hand-applied. You cannot tell where one ends, and the other begins. A cinematic mood underscores the entire collection. Fabrics and prints melt seamlessly into one another, like scenes from a film crossfading; a femme Fatale Forties silhouette prevails, inspired by Film Noir and the heroines of Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock. But these silhouettes and garments are now streamlined and sporty, printed and embroidered, like an old classic digitally re-mastered for today. Knits and embroidery replicates the jagged outline of sound waves, mimicking the ebbing and flowing of a musical score. Fantasia leads, naturally, to ‘Fantasia’, the classic 1940 animated film by Walt Disney; while the notion of ‘kingdoms’ of aesthetic themes leads to the Magic Kingdom. A series of looks showcase a collaboration between Mary Katrantzou and Disney, inspired by the timeless masterpiece and drawing visuals from the criticallyacclaimed extravaganza of sight and sound. Cells from the film are reproduced in glorious Technicolor prints, sometimes painstakingly woven into brocades and jacquards. Classic Disney characters and Fantasia scenes glow, luminescent, from rich inky velvets or needle-felt coating, the darkness inherent to any fairytale. A series of cocktail dresses have surfaces literally “animated” with beaded fringe. A live orchestra plays at the show, inspired by Fantasia’s underlying symphonic concert conducted by Leopold Stokowski and performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1940 film. Another fantasia also emerges, separate to Disney’s and evoked through luxurious craft and technique. Tulle is printed to resemble a dusk-to-dawn gradient, while intarsia tulle skirts inset with velvet delicately veil the legs. Jacquard lace is painstakingly embroidered, and precious Swarovski crystals sparkle, delineating flowers and arranged to create ropes of trompe l'oeil gems on velvet bib collars, crown jewels fit for a fairy princess. Shoes are bowed and bespangled for a contemporary Cinderella. The whole adds to a true fantasy - a flight of fancy, a dive deep into the imagination. A fashion fantasia.
Pleated knit dresses updated with ribbons, sweet ruffles at the shoulders and folkloric floral prints and some cute lace-up Swedish clogs