If we keep touting that old chestnut about fashion being cyclical and that nothing is completely original anymore then the fashions of what we conceive as the near-past will soon be catching up with us. On this Easter Sunday when we're supposed to be chilling out, maxing and relaxing and munching on cheap chocolate Easter eggs, I present you with the hefty question of when it is ok to start recycling ideas and referencing collections? I take Stella McCartney for Chloe's S/S 2001 collection as an example, one that got a surprisingly perfunctory review on Style.com (ah... the days before the awesomeness of Meenal Mistry and Tim Blanks...) but in my mind it left an indelible imprint, even though at the time I was more interested in learning Latin verbs then catching up with collections. You could feel the impact on eBay when numerous fakes of the Chloe horse prints galloping across dresses and tops (taken from Stubbs and Géricault and paintings...) kept surfacing. There's a definite recognisability to the collection that makes people want to imbue it with words such as 'classic' and 'iconic' and it's still one that I see garnering blog/Tumblr posts...
One of the pieces from the collection has ended up at Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery with its ties to Liverpudlian artist George Stubbs as well as its retail origin from infamous store Cricket...
It's a little frightening that a collection, that for me seems like something recalled from recent memory is actually a decade old which begs the question whether horses printed across jackets, skirts and tops as they seen in Milk from a Thistle's A/W 11 collection, form a well-timed revival? Granted, the horses aren't being attacked nor are they angered with the same voracity as they are in McCartney's borrowed prints for Chloe. Designer Danielle Atkinson from Sydney (yes, the countdown to my trip next week is enthusiastically starting...) behind the young label Milk from a Thistle specialises in prints through her background in textile design. I personally welcome the prints, that only recall that Chloe collection in dribs and drabs, as Atkinson's choice of shapes (easy-going jackets, loose tops and skirts) are vastly different and as a plus point, the prices are also moderately more accessible. The entirely different context and inception of this collection also dulls the comparison somewhat. Plus, I'm impelled to love the name Milk from a Thistle as it's derived from a Joanna Newsom song.
I suppose the acceptance of this motif rejuvenantion would also depend on whether the designer herself cites or openly references the origin. It could also be entirely possible that McCartney's Stubbs repro prints passed her by. We're getting into symmantics here but perhaps there is some sort of ten-year rule which makes referencing palatable and in some cases, more than welcome? Should the number of years reduce, then it's a dangerous game of deja vu designers play with what is already a bevy of jaded industry insiders...
Just to support the return, I dug up this photo remembering that Aussie swimwear label We Are Handsome also got stuck into some galloping horse action in their debut collection...
