Altuzarra Spring/Summer 2016.

Sat. 09/12/2015.





Altuzarra Spring/Summer 2016.

Perplexing. That is the takeaway from the surprisingly uneven and uninspiring collection from Joseph Altuzarra for Spring of 2016. Whereas usually, Altuzarra's tailoring and gently perverse sense of chic bring the more disparate elements together into a cohesive and satisfying whole, here, on this occasion, it led to a disconnect and incoherence to what we usually come to this designer for. Surely, yes, the thigh high slits were accounted for and present front and center (actually, that is one element that could easily be lost and for the betterment of the brand) the sharp tailleur was there as well, the scintillating sinuous cut of his dresses and gowns also had much going for them, but this was all wrapped up in a miasma of relaxed sensuality of the Basque country (where his paternal ancestry hail from) that fell under Altuzarra's umbrella of presenting a "Very Serene" assemblage.

While Spain could have led to something more buoyant and joyful, it led to the collection feeling flat and gimmicky in places... the pleating and quasi tie-dye prints and espadrilles and other folkloric flourishes. Altuzarra has always danced on a line of ebullience tamed with a wise restraint that sometimes often confounds his collections, but he usually has a plumb line through all the noise and hullabaloo that makes his collections usually startlingly acute and insightful. On this day, that was not the case in the least. Bluntly, it looked sloppy. The clothes didn't exalt or drape and hang in a way that caught one's breath in their chest, to wit, it looked overdone and under thought.

There were beautiful moments, but in the overview and presence of the whole, they were just fleeting moments among a crowd of underwhelming blandness. Every designer has a collection or so that just gets away from them and seems to run wild with it's own steam of bad decisions, this was just such a case, and the reins felt fully out of Altuzarra's hands. Next time, we hope this isn't the case.





That's All.





Bye4Now!