MARY KATRANTZOU | SPRING / SUMMER 2011

While for many designers this season’s inspiration came from the colours and shapes on the women of Guy Bourdin’s work in the 1970s, Mary Katrantzou instead fell in love with those around them. Spectacularly opulent interior scenes that might so easily be dismissed as a backdrop have, in Katrantzou’s first stand-alone show, been digitally printed in minute detail onto dresses and skirts in one of the standout collections of London Fashion Week.

Entitled C’est Ci Nes Pas Une Chambre (geddit?), Katrantzou’s surrealist vision is realised not only on the surface of the fabric but in the masterful cuts and Avant-Garde silhouettes as well. Shoulders are adorned with stiff 3D pelmets that frame the windows printed on the bodice, while real chiffon curtains flutter around the front of a skirt to become a full tail of billowing fabric at the back. Sweetshop hues of lemon, mint and violet receive a perfectly judged shot of kitsch glamour through deep saffron, poppy and fuscia.

In a masterstroke that owes more than a little gratitude to Vivienne Westwood’s famed Mini Crini collection, skirts took on the stiff, boned shapes of Victorian lampshades, complete with crystal tassels shimmering around the hem. Simpler necklines were styled with enormous glittering chandelier necklaces while wrists glistened with multi-toned crystal bracelets. It must be seen to be believed, but once seen this collection is impossible to forget.

- Louise Black