Mary Katrantzou

Autumn/Winter 2012-13

Colour Palette- grey, black, white, yellow, pale blue, fluorescent green, cobalt blue, fluorescent pink, purple, red, beige and brown   

Garment shapes-  flared trousers, squared shoulders, ruffled hems, round neck lines, stand up collars, lampshade shape, stiff

Length- knee length flared/ ruffled dress, flared trousers, uneven hem 

Textiles Techniques- Digital print, knit, embroidery, couture detailing 

Prints- digital prints, symmetrical small detailed repeated patterns, built up through geometric shapes that clash through pattern and colour to create a detailed surface pattern, 

Fabric- Silk, wool, chiffon

Key details- detailed small repeat pattern with geometric shapes, round neck lines, squared shoulders, fitted waist, explosive bold colours, symmetrical prints

Looks- 1 oversized flared dress from boost, large scale print on chiffon fabric, ruffled hem to exaggerate movement and a contrasting soft green and beige palette, 1 lampshade fitted past the knee length dress, parachute hem, symmetrical contrasting pattern using geometric and floral shapes, 3/4 sleeves with squared shoulders, 1 flared trousers and off the shoulder flared lampshade bodice, fitted stiff with detailed extricate pattern, faded pattern at trousers hem indicating a sense of direction, floor length gown symmetrical fluorescent pattern, reduced in scale through direction, distorted scale., 1 favorite of garments colours more neutral, sleeve left and knee length straight dress, contrasting palette, symmetrical built up pattern small scale. 1 turtle neck jumper and knee length straight skirt, stripped knit patterns and embroidered symmetrical detail, 1 stand up collar, square shoulder,long sleeves, flared waist line symmetrical small repeat pattern growing in scale as the skirt flares, neutral colour tones with contrasting hem, block strips and rectangles.

Accessories -shoe boots

Style.com Review by Dolly Jones

WINNER of the Emerging Talent Awards at last year’s British Fashion Awards, Mary Katrantzou made one of the longest speeches thanking, well, everybody she could think of - and her show notes today were just as effusive in her appreciation of her team (named individually), her “lifelong mentor and a force” Louise Wilson and her parents, among others.

She’s as well known for her humility as she is for her prints which is nice to see since while she isn’t actually single-handedly responsible for the fact that we all love wearing prints from head to foot these days, she could be – so great are the ones she brings to life on the catwalk.

Promising to “discover the beauty in the everyday in a collection where product placement becomes placement print”, she smothered her signature structured lampshade-shaped dresses and stiff, A-line tailored coats with spoons, phone dials, typewriter keys, luggage tassels and clothes hangers – one dress was even embroidered with real yellow pencils.

It was brilliantly entertaining, inventive as ever – but the construction today was just as much of the story: Victorian bustled dresses, strict Elizabethan corsetry, undulating neck ruffles and dresses whose skirts gathered vertically around the body, McQueen style, were brilliantly put together and endlessly new.

Katrantzou has that cult desirability – her capsule collections for TopShop have been incredibly hot property and the canvas bags left on our seats at the show, featuring just a little of one of her floral prints, were snaffled off the moment we arrived without even a pretense of nonchalance.

Personal Review 

The collection is bright, vibrant and exploding with colour and geometric intricate print, building up texture through layered print as well as emphasizing a three dimensional effect through placement. The fluorescent pink, cobalt blue and green highlight areas of the collection and particularly looks successful with the black and white colour tones. Taking aspects of the tailoring would fit in well with my collection however I want my collection to feature more loose, oversized draped.

How it would work in my collection

The fluorescent blue, pink and green would break up my shibori samples that are slightly dull, creating a contrast between my gothic dark tones. This may also build up the texture if i was to use embellishment methods to create selective textured areas that lack detail. Referring back to the geometric patterns used here with out this collection I will develop my own print using photoshop to work back into my shibori samples to give the structure.