PARIS, July 4, 2012
By Tim Blanks
There may have been a moment in Josh Goot's career during his earnest efforts to establish himself in the Northern Hemisphere when he soft-pedaled his Australian connection, but since moving back to Sydney, he's made peace with that bit of his past. And Resort may well turn out to be the answer to that seasons-in-reverse issue that dogs designers down under, especially when, as here, the collection was so full of the things that make great Australian designers—like Nicky Zimmermann, Jenny Kee, and Dion Lee—so, er, great.
The prints that draw on Oz's incredible natural environment, for instance. Goot's striking digital motifs were inspired by the underwater colors and textures of the Great Barrier Reef. "I wanted them to feel like animal prints," he said. So he made fish look like zebra and tiger—as well as flowers, or complete abstractions like the graphic he called "future fossil," which was a psychedelic Rorschach.
Another Sydney strongpoint, the body consciousness that comes with the climate, has always been one of Goot's strengths, too. Here, he bonded silk to thin foam to create a second-skin alternative to neoprene and cut it into a new silhouette with darting detail. The dipped hems and mesh inserts added a go-faster athleticism.
Goot's first attempt at knitwear fit right in with the high-tech body con. His intarsias felt as dry as a bone. "I love cold, dry textiles," he almost apologized. "They feel really clean."
There was the same quality in Goot's tailored pieces, also new territory for him. He focused on corsetry, using 100 percent cotton jersey bonded to a thin layer of foam. If you ain't got the Bondi bod, Goot'll give it to you.
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