Thursday, May 17, 2018

Tome Spring/Summer 2016.

Thurs. 09/10/2015.





Tome Spring/Summer 2016.

It would be incredibly refreshing if Tome's Ryan Lobo and Ramon Martin didn't fuss up their clothes so much. A nice flourish here and there is always appreciated, but with every artsy installment in the "Tome Show" Lobo and Martin seem to exaggerate and overdo things simply best left alone and to their own devices. That problematic fixation on Zhuzhing up pieces already quite fanciful to start with, leads to an overwrought nature to many items. Usually, the duo find idiosyncratic artists and intellectual types to glean inspiration from, and this is where oft times, the tendency to overthink and over design comes from. This Spring they found Australian visual Artist Fiona Hall as their touchstone. It lead to some nifty exits, and some serious drama in a few outfits that were genuinely, brilliant. Yet, that niggling sense of an innate lack of restraint caused much of what was paraded down the catwalk to fall into the category of needlessly tricky.

The simplest offerings were definitely the most potent, the opening section in Black and White was quite near flawless and a Citron Yellow dress over a White Lace top was an exceptional exercise in simplicity and refinement, but executed in the vocabulary of Martin and Lobo. A Glacier Blue gown on Supermodel of olde, Claudia Mason, was a perfect study in artistry meeting fashion in equal proportions. I don't want any one going away from this review thinking the collection wasn't likable, indeed it was, but the takeaway should be that Martin and Lobo could do themselves, and in that, their customer, so much more a service, if they reined in their more esoteric and extrovert leanings and focused on just one or two strokes of genius. If not, their collections will continue to be shrouded with a miasma of artsy high minded-ness that might alienate customers that don't want to think too deeply about their clothes, or work that hard to wear them!





That's All.





Bye4Now!


Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Marissa Webb Spring/Summer 2016.

Thurs. 09/10/2015.




Marissa Webb Spring/Summer 2016.

For Marissa Webb's Spring-Summer 2016 collection, she juxtaposed girlish flirtatiousness with tomboy chic and jumbled them together in her fashion Spin Cycle for an offering that was neither too heavy nor too wan on either sartorial idea and struck a nice balance between both. Webb was influenced by pictures of her grandparents in the 50's, Grandpa bedecked in his military finery and Grandma beside him, dressed in her "Prim" frocks and noticed how interesting it would be if those two style statements morphed together into one cohesive idea.

Webb's best exits were when she feminized the military components into softer, more girly outfits or layered more demonstrably military ideas with more fluid clothes. The color palette was executed brilliantly starting with a cool Lilac and moving into Army Green and Desert Tan, then on to a flattering Golden Yellow and a Navy Botanic print that was most deeply welcome amidst the panoply of solids. The one odd and ill-conceived insertion, a strident and misplaced Coral Red that didn't jibe with the rest of the collection and felt distinctly jarring and out-of-place. Webb finished strong and on-trend with plenty of Black and White and after the early excursions into colour, felt like just what was needed to refresh the eye and on an exceptionally strong note.





That's All.





Bye4Now!