Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Rough and Refined

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Last week I mentioned that I thought the most interesting thing to come out of the Spring couture shows was the return of 47 year-old Dutch designer Josephus Thimister, who had gone missing (save for a short stint at Charles Jourdan) since leaving Balenciaga in 1997.

Thimister's final collection at Balenciaga – the one that got him fired – was inspired by the Baader-Meinhof Group, and the "bloodshed and opulence" of the Bolshevik Revolution provided inspiration for this one. "We are still feeling the aftershock...Europe fell apart," he told Hilary Alexander at the Telegraph. "We have never recovered. We have lost our soul and our spirit."

Brooding Commie or not, I really like Thimister's juxtaposition of rougher military materials with more delicate pieces. In the look shown below, the coat could almost double as a tarp, and by contrast it elevates the beauty of an intricately embellished evening dress – which itself feels like it could have been made from scrap metal and mesh (click to enlarge). It reminds me of camouflage netting.

So anyway – I liked a lot of the show, and it will be interesting to see where Thimister goes now. See more images at Fashionologie and read a recent interview with the designer at Style.com.

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