My print trumpet blowing may be wearing you guys down but that's ok because I'm persistent like that and will keep on blaring it until your ears bleed. Calla Haynes has a pretty stellar pedigree having worked with Olivier Theyskens at Rochas and Nina Ricci and also knowing a good print or two having collaborated with Jeremy Laing and Alexander Wang. The Toronto-ite is adding to that group of Canadian fashion roster that Sarah Nicole Prickett summed up very well in this article on the 'CanCon in Paris'.
Incidentally, it was Sarah-Nicole who saved my showroom visit to Callas by lending me her camera as mine was misplaced. It's a delicate debut for Haynes when you first look at it with its pastel colours and ethereal looking prints. It's only when you move in closer that the dresses and separates move in for the kill. First, there's this stupendous fish skin loose-fitting jacket that has a pocket going all the way around it. Who wants to be trussed up in fishskin? I hate eating the stuff but wearing it, is, as I discovered, a whole different kettle of fish (I laugh at my own pun there...)
Move closer again and it's prints again but rather than going for digital precision, they're painterly, blurred and abstracted from their original source... once again, Haynes uses no side seams for the jacket shapes to give them that loose shape that summer tailoring calls for. She's also introduced a range of printed separates like loose tees, cropped tops and tunics all doused in these prints or in neutral colours to make this truly a functional capsule collection.
Stronger and more sculpted shapes are introduced with these corset dresses that don't rely on boning and rather use mesh/elastic to strap everything in... no boning strips knocking against my rib cage...
I look forward to seeing more from CanCon's newest addition seeing as she's managed to convert me to non-edible fishskin...
