ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN DE MODE OCT-NOV-DEC 2022 (Vol V, Issue XXVIII)
Article Published on: 2ND JAN 2023 | www.demodemagazine.com
WRITTEN BY "JEANNE LEA DELAHOUSIE", GUEST WRITER (FASHION) & PHOTOGRAPHED BY MICHAEL FOUST, PHOTO-JOURNALIST (DE MODE)
In grievances of the Queen’s passing, London Fashion Week took the time to postpone many of the runway and presentation showcases. All in Royal fashion; the designers still came together to honor and celebrate the life of Queen Elizabeth.
The UK native, Christopher Kane held a moment of silence in honor of Her Majesty. Accompanied by his subversive collection, Kane draws out the excess and boils us down to the perfumed proxy of life and death. With his frank gestures to sexuality, the transparent clear vinyl body braces, and lace trimmed double-sided skirts, fabric that depicted the soft tissues of muscles onto the silhouette developed a sense of authority to each movement. Reconstructing femininity has always been a focal point in Kane’s collections; this time built by blunt muscle tissues and clear rib cages, which asks the question: “what really lies underneath?” Are we slicing the barrier of clothes as they go beyond the skin? The steady hand incision outlined the breast bone, cupping in soft foam green and light pink dewy silk remained obvious, resembling such a delicious pirouette cake that would be savored at high tea.
Gracing his true nature to one of the queen’s worldly displays. Kane is giving us a visual of what is inside, and how toilsome textures become capable. How his literal “body of work” is perceived and dissected. How the woman’s image is grappled between sexuality and sheath, the dexterity for both, and Kane’s nature to do the incomprehensible. Where the printed florals cyclically compromise in Kane's collections, formulate naturalist homages, mentioned in his note: “they are symbolic for life and death, celebrations and condolences”, through the use of juxtaposed materials. An honest disrupter in ‘arcane’ fashion, Christopher can take a casual message, as we have seen in previous collections like “More Joy”, and carefully composes his orchestra to a respected crescendo, tethered to the rhythm of time simultaneously knowing when to break boundaries creating new textures and reinstating old ones.
