>> I've got some flowery thoughts on my mind what with the arrival of Steve's sister's first child (and thus a demi niece for me) this weekend, who happens to be called Lily. Both of these collections may have been well disseminated but together they collectively form quite the Australian bouquet, which seemed appropriate today. It's a spectacular bouquet that needs to be piled up alongside Lesya Paramonova's debut collection and Tumblr-derived GIFs, dreamy photos of roses and other soft focus visions of girliness. First up is Karla Spetic's return after missing out a few seasons. She was another sore omission from my Australian Fashion Week experience earlier in May and I thought she might have quit her label altogether. She eases herself back into the game with Liberty blooms, blocked pastels and an affectation for the spaghetti strap. Spetic reveals and conceals with rectangular cut-outs placed above the midriff and sheer bands of organza and lace. It's all too easy to love what Spetic is putting out, especially at this pivotal point in this non-starter of a British summer when you're on the edge of the BBC weather forecast, pining for warmer or merely dryer days. I fully expect these pieces to come out to play when I'm next down in Australia where there's no such problem in the sunshine area.
There's been mucho love for the TAFE graduate Natalia Grzybowski and her Hybrid collection. She clashes the natural with the technological with her part human, part botanical silhouettes. Whilst there are reminders of Stella McCartney's resort 2011 play with old botanical prints, Grzybowski has engineered these historical botanical prints in a way that melts into the moulded shapes of the collections. Unprinted, the white bonded neoprene pieces appear to be effortlessly sculpted into nature-derived forms. When the prints have been applied, they take on a new lease of life. Those blank canvas pieces probably propelled Grzybowski in to a design internship at Calvin Klein, which she is undertaking right now. It'll be interesting to see whether her name pops up as its own entity again.
(Flower GIFS from Tumblr)
