Tess Giberson F/W 13.14 New York

[Psylocke]

I wish there was a properly styled runway show for this and not just this awkward presentation. I bet this collection could look so much better than it does here. Not sure yet whether I like it...

Click for bigger pictures.

source: nymag.com









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[Psylocke]

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[ChrissyM]

Psylocke I feel that way too... there are some pieces i definitely like and am drawn toward, while others have me scratching my head a little...

might need to take a breather and revisit...

 

[Scott]

i actually feel the opposite way,myself. i like the edgier more off-kilter feel of this. reminds me of her early days,actually. in fact,it is almost like she's revisiting her early days. the collection is supposed to be inspired by her childhood with all the handmade clothes and the art her mother would do.

nevertheless this is the best i've seen from tess since she's returned! (and that's saying a lot for me,of course )

 

[elle_gb]

I quite like it though in term of tailor and execution, it was good winter collection but yeah I dont see anything new or intersting but still pretty solid collection.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

I love layers so this really works for me. That very first jacket is gorgeous!

 

[Deleted member 7575]

The clothes might be nice but presentation doesn't leave a good impression.

 

[laika]

Agree that the presentation is awkward, but LOVE the clothes!
Especially the knit pieces, and the footwear looks good too.

Nice to see her doing something a little less commercial again.

thank you for the thread.

 

[Scott]

btw,the pictures on style.com are much better shot and look much less awkward than the ones from nymag.

Well, hmm. It feels uncharitable to accuse Giberson of pretension—she emerged in an era of downtown New York fashion when artistic aspiration wasn't so vanishingly rare as it is now, and it's nice that she wanted to resurrect that spirit. And in the meantime, her recent collections have been very, very grounded. But the issue this time out was that Giberson's collection seemed to suffer from a surfeit of what I'll call "art thinking," and a deficit of "fashion thinking." Art values process. Fashion values the end result of process, i.e., product. So from the moment Giberson decided that the theme of her collection was "Evolution," and that the clothes would be a kind of procedural showing the development and adaptation of her ideas, she committed herself to art thinking. There were a lot of nice pieces here—and a few terrific ones, like the patchwork leggings, and a split-back blazer with a tonal floral print, or the draped black wool coat with multicolored hand-knit sleeves—but the collection as a whole proved less than coherent. Which is ironic, given that Giberson's intention was to elucidate the connections between her pieces. But that's art thinking for you. Fashion thinkers, at their smartest, know when to cut the looks that got them to the places they eventually realized they were going.

*style.com

i don't know what maya singer is talking about here because everything i see i can see on the backs of regular people.....so her rant about 'fashion thinking' and 'product' makes no sense to me.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

I'd agree Scott; I'd wear pretty much everything in the collection.

 

[Scott]

i dunno if it's just the state of our current fashion culture but this attitude is the very reason designers no longer feel free to be absolutely creative but also commercial. it's like you have to be one way or the other,and it's even worse it seems this mindset in this country. and maya singer's review just reeks of the very thing she all but called tess' collection....pretentious. and might i add rather snobby. if you're not playing the game you somehow become irrelevant or they describe you as 'not cohesive' which is complete and utter rubbish to me.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

It's very sad that "art thinking" is perceived as somehow flawed, and worse, that it's considered basically mutually exclusive from "fashion thinking", as though a designer and his/her team must come up with a perfectly polished "product" as opposed to "artful" clothing that considers the process equal to the product.

SAD review, and SAD state of affairs indeed.

Perhaps we need some gorilla fashion reviewers and respondents?

 

[Scott]

and this is what inspired tess this season

"Referencing a handmade quilt from my childhood, I touched upon influences from the craft movement I was surrounded by, merging my old work with the new by mixing traditional craft with a strong modern aesthetic." — Tess Giberson

*wwd.com

 

[Psylocke]

^Aww

You're right, Scott, the polished pictures on style.com are better than the ones I posted (they weren't up on style when I started the thread), but I'm still on the fence about the collection itself. I can't get over that horrid acid green shirt dress with that bulky knit piece It's totally not my cup of tea. I do like the leather mini dress and the whole outfit on the model with the red curly hair. The first look is nice, too. But I'm still a little disappointed with this, I guess I prefer her more Ann D-like collections over this, although I definitely appreciate the creative effort here and the fact that it's such a personal collection.

 

[Scott]

yeah that acid green is very bold for tess but i actually think it kind of works. i think it sort of correlates with the colours and patterns of her quilt not to mention that beautiful cobalt blue.

it's very interesting to look at this though in context with her body of work because pre-TSE she was very much about handcrafts but it was in the vein of a more tailored silhouette.....i think it's quite refreshing to see how she's been able to apply it with her current approach to volume and drapery. i think it not only shows how relevant handcrafts are in any style but perhaps to show where her soul still lies. it's part of who she is as a designer and a person.