This season designer Andrew Gn was a slave to two muses, Tina Chow and Yayoi Kusama. Could there be two more diametrically opposite women in the world?
Somehow Gn made it work. Well, he sort of cheated a bit. Instead of really trying to make a sartorial mash up of the elegant style icon and the whimsically eccentric artist, he bookended his graceful “Chow” designs around his more youthful and vibrant “Kusama” pieces.
But why be so picky. It’s not as if any one woman is going to buy this entire collection. Rather Gn looked to be trying to cater to a lot of different age groups and he admits that now he is finding himself dressing both mothers and their daughters in his designs.
"I always believe that I need to reinvent myself,” explained Gn before his show. “Also women today in their fifties, they don’t want to look like their are fifty they want to look like there are thirty-five. And there is a way to do it. To still be graceful, sensual and beautiful and yet also be young and fashionable. So that is very much my thing.”
Yes it is.
For every age appropriate dress that was given a bit of a rebellious edge ,via round and rectangular grommet that lined cuffs, waists, collars and hems, there was a brilliantly graphic fitted dress with baroque arabesque swirl appliqués running down the front. Or a beautifully tailored forest green wool crepe coat and black asymmetrical skirt would have its youthful counterpoint in a sleeveless satin top tricked out in a copper and orange snakeskin diamond motif and a pencil skirt featuring a colorful retro 1950s looking robot.
This was a collection that showed a designer in transition. But going from one winning position to another. So for the Gn brand change is really looking like a good thing.