Patrick Owen is the kind of designer that loves to dress his women as if they were goddesses on pedestals. But if goddesses were to appear in Patrick Owen’s latest creations, they might have to worry about indecent exposure. Because there were plenty of boobies in sight in Patrick’s spring collection.
Granted the inspiration for the collection seemed to be drawn from post-apocalyptic dark females warriors where they were dressed with the idea of innerwear as outerwear. But just as you settled yourself into that revelation, a new proposition showed up. This time round, models walked out in bright, cheerful prints.
While the collection was, no doubt, substantial, it was brought down by these two conflicting ideas. Halfway through, you can’t help but feel as if you’re watching Patrick dreaming about two different visions at the same time.
Patrick may have tried to show lightness and darkness, the balance of the universe, the yin and yang in this collection, but a single solid thread of objective is much needed to sew up all these ideas into a cohesive collection.
There was a breath of fresh air in Sapto Djojokartiko’s latest collection. It was fresh not because there are new silhouettes or innovative fabrics to behold. It was fresh because Sapto has humanised his women with the collection.
Gone are the tight-fitting sculptural dresses and dangerously high heels. For spring, Sapto proposed the idea of dressing for leisure. There were plenty of relaxed pieces, such as sweater, baggy pants and roomy floor-length sack dresses. Heels were swapped in favour of platform sandals and espadrilles.
With that, Sapto has relieved women from the need of appearing like a sexed-up glamazon all the time. Clearly, comfort is the first thing that came to mind with this collection. And it is surprising just how much was gained from a deceptively simple idea of ease.
It must be tough to be Tex Saverio, especially when his reputation, most often than not, precedes him. He is the man behind the famous silver wedding dress worn by Jennifer Lawrence in Hunger Games: Catching Fire. He is also the man behind the famous black laser-cut dress worn by Lady Gaga in Harper’s Bazaar. So it is only natural that expectations were high for Tex Saverio latest collection.
But did the collection quench the crowd’s thirst to be charmed and wowed by Tex latest offering? It was solid but underwhelming. Tex built the collection around wearable pieces that came in shades of white and metallic silver. Emphasis was also placed on texture. On a white drop-shoulder jacket, the textured surface gave the impression of peeling snake scales from afar. On top of that, shiny geometric shapes provided modest covering on see-through floor-length dresses.
Obviously, Tex played it safe for this collection. But far too safe. He focused too much on the part of “wearable” and caused the collection to end up looking like tired rehash of an old idea. At this point, he shouldn’t be playing it safe. After all, with all his talent and experience, Tex really does have nothing to lose.
