FRIDA GENIUS

By Katie Wright

FRIDA GENIUS

I can’t count the number of shows that started all in white and ended in black. Is this a sign of play it safe recession tactics? Or some kind of religious allegory? I’m guessing the former. And so it was at GUCCI, where Frida Giannini paired bright white with tiny flashes of silver at collar and cuffs, and on accessories, no doubt putting a tick in the ‘space age-inspired’ box. A dozen looks in the colours segued to grey but the metallic detailed continued; chrome belts were reminiscent of horses’ stirrups.-

The only non-monochrome colour came from bright orange, blue and magenta on asymmetrically patterned cocktail dresses. Then it was fade to black slim cut trousers, blazers and ankle-length dresses. Another top notch outing for Giannini.

Raf Simons adopted a similar approach for paragon of minimalism JIL SANDER. The only time the Technicolor was only turned on for a couple of dresses – crinkly wet look numbers in metallic cyan and bottle green, they both had that gorgeous creepy-crawly exoskeleton feel to them. Clever little so and so that he is, this season Simons took a slew ideas that have formed the backbone of numerous of his contemporaries collections of recent years and seemed to perfect them in one exit. I’m talking dual length hems, pyjama-esque tailoring, the baggy shirtdress, 3D cloud-front dresses, cut-outs on sheer fabric, the modern flapper dress, loose origami patches… all delivered, Sander-style, to great effect.