Giles Pre-Fall 2013

[Stereo_Flo]

By Tim Blanks

At this stage in Giles Deacon's career, his design signature is set in stone—or rather, the crepe that loans itself so well to the Old Hollywood atmos of his clothes. Tick the boxes: formality, eccentricity, glamour, perversity. But such predictability doesn't stop him from entwining those threads in darkly entertaining new ways each season. For his pre-fall collection, Giles was inspired by AtomAge, a cultish British fetish magazine from the seventies that photographed women in leather and rubber against incongruously natural backdrops. Nothing bestows innocence on a model caped in black rubber like propping her against a wooden fence in a farmer's field. Not that Giles was going for a literal reinterpretation. He may have borrowed the classic fetish color palette—black, red, white—but he was more engaged by the cheerfully subversive campiness of the AtomAge ethos, the gleeful wallow in the tension between the proper and the peculiar. Nowhere was it more obvious than in a sheath in an oily black Lurex that held in check a voluminously sleeved blouse in purest white poplin. Just like schoolteacher Miss Jean Brodie, reimagined as a suburban dominatrix. The designer compounded the notion with a dress that could have been a schoolgirl's uniform, except that it was cut from red polyamide and bisected with a long zip.

The same contrast—lurid glam vs. stock-tie priss—appeared elsewhere. It was at its subtlest in a supremely elegant full-sleeved, floor-length, Empire-lined dress whose polka dots were actually a tiny little rendition of the ventilator from a fetish mask. The same pattern dotted a floor-sweeping gown with a bodice corseted over a matching blouse. Adrian himself could scarcely have designed a better outfit for Norma Shearer in 1939's The Women. It's a huge part of Giles' appeal that he has mastered the craft of combining such glamorous propriety with manga-like graphism in the same collection. Quintessential classico-con-twist. Here, he fired a shot of Stephen Sprouse at Old Hollywood, graffitiing a pouty-lipped sex kitten over a vintage Alpine scene (a tip of the cap to the AtomAge outdoors) and printing the extraordinary result on neoprene foam in dressy shapes like an A-line coat and a pencil skirt. Best was a printed sheath dress with a thick horizontal band of red. It looked properly adult.

style.com

 

[Stereo_Flo]

style.com

 

[Phuel]

Thanks for this Stereo_Flo.

What more is there to say that Tim already hasn't...

I really like this; it's restrained and subtle but also able to be quirky. It's Victorian and modern, retro but not customy, and it's interesting without looking like he's trying too hard. It's actually nice to see a designer not be so desperately trendy; there's volume there to keep up with fashion's moment, but it's not all predictable, oversized coats and jackets.

 

[john2elmejor]

I love it!

 

[elle_gb]

The print is insane!!! this is very good.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

AMAZING! I love it. I also love Edie Campbell which adds to my appreciation. But I'd wear every look! The maxis might be hard to wear, but to me they look so fun here, especially in that graphic print.

 

[jennifer~]

The monochromatic looks with the trousers are my favorites, if only for the fact that I have never seen the dress-over-pants look work so well. The ivory dress (or tunic?) would look ordinary by itself, but the styling is just perfect.

 

[dodencebt]

Well this is a stunning new direction, the collection feels extremely innovative for a pre-fall!

 

[Crying Diamonds]

Love how the dresses evoke the 'seventies but don't evoke hippie, and how he's still very much keeping that structure in his designs with the fabric which I associate with his designs.
Did Alber illustrate those skirts?

 

[TianSoFine]

Giles is always pure art. This collection is such a treasure. Again with the distracting backgrounds, though...