So just to make this clear, this isn't meant to be a blog about high fashion, so I won't be dissecting every stick insect that comes tottering down a catwalk each season, but I will make exceptions for super super awesome designers. Like Gareth Pugh.
For those of you who have been living in a little hole recently, he is one of Britain's three current enfants terrible, the other two being Henry Holland and Giles Deacon. Both of these guys do pretty cool things but OOoooh Gareth Pugh's creations...
Just to give an idea, his first collection started simple (ha.) with white structuralism. However, his inspirations seem to have been clowns, body armour, and Elizabethan ruffs. Which are meeting each other in future. During an explosion. But luckily it's all in white so your eyes don't try to escape out of your head.
See what I mean? I love the random cape on the first model, the cocoon-like riffles on the second, the way the third looks like she's had a box shaped around her. The fourth messes it all up by being lovely and floaty and the clean lines on the fifth combined with the odd ruffles looks like classic fashion being booted up the behind.
So after you've created a vision of the future in white, where do you go? Oh right, opposite side of the spectrum, black!
Seriously if my boyfriend could pull off spiked boots worn with a ragged shirt and a funny hat, oh the things I would do... (well I'd wonder about his sexuality for a start, but still it would be AWESOME).
This collection looks more post-apocalyptic future. Kind of leather-and-ragged clothes sort of thing. I don't know, I just like it.
Right so we've done white, we've done black, logically where should we go next? Oh right, black AND white:
In a collection which, frankly is a little bit scary. Most people will see a gimp mask and a chessboard and go 'huh. Ok, gimp mask and a chess board, I think I'll play some chess/indulge in perverse acts.' Not Gareth Pugh. He sees chessboard and gimp mask and goes INSPIRATION!! Then he adds to it with tribal-looking tufts of hair, a silver trench coat (which honestly looks like something a futuristic prostitute, or Vince Noir, would wear), some latex and a mask which is modeled on a fly's face (seriously, look closely at the second one from the left).
Yet somehow it works. I actually quite like how the super-high shoulders make the fourth model look like a child-catcher, and the angles on the fifth make her look like a giant mosquito. Hell I even like Lego-clown-features on the end there, though I wouldn't invite her to a party.
After black, white, and black-and-white? Where do you go next? Well according to Gareth you make a collection based on samurai outfits, which was certainly cool, but not actually very exciting so I've missed it out. So after that you get to the newest collection, which is Grey.
Look at the boots! I swear if the gods could wear shoes, they'd look like this. Incidentally, I have no idea where you can get these from, but I DO know that currently Forever21 has shoes like this which is probably as close as we'll come without selling our kidneys.
Isn't it a gorgeous collection though? Look at them, floating down the catwalk like so many balls of mist. Of the lines so far, this would probably be the easiest to wear, because oh yeah, i forgot to point out that all these lines are part of his READY TO WEAR. Yes! Now you too can wear a diamond-pattern gimp mask every day! That said, I would sell my soul for the chain-covered skirt in the Black collection and the super-gothy ragged dress in the Grey collection (that is, if they did these things in size chubby).
Want to get the look? Well because I love you I created a simulation of it made from cheap(er) more normal clothes on polyvore.com
Clockwise from top left:
House of
White Doc Martens £70
Black Glittery lashes amiclubwear.com
Ruched Leather Mini – charlotterusse.com, £14
Winter Heather scarf, $15 ae.com
Optical illusion badge, 99p, bigcheesebadges.com
Checkerboard oversize tshirt, £26, asos.com
Black&silver padded structured dress, £20, desireclothing.com
Black lipstick, $16, amiclubwear.com
Black sequin dress with square padded shoulders, £90 adhoclondon.co.uk
I went out to dinner last night, and being insane I thought it might be a fun idea to see how much of this look I could channel without spending any money or looking like a crazy person. Succeeded on one count, may have failed on the second:
Without coat/gloves
With coat/gloves and an unintentionally evil expression. I think that's cuz my camera kept dying and I was pissed off.
So there you have it folks; my largest post ever and a designer-centric one at that. All model photos are from style.com
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Your writing style is cool! And you weren't lying when you promised a big Pugh-post. And finally, you looked cool at dinner, thanks for not accessorising with a gimp mask though :)
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