CASSON LONDON: January 2012

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

70's Vibes

Kasia Struss photographed by Hugh Lippe for Naag in 'Prelude to Winter'.

Miss Dior by Gruau, 1950.

Mum and Dad looking too cool on their wedding day in The Galle Face Hotel, Columbo, Sri Lanka.

1978.

Although you can't tell, Mum was heavily pregnant with my brother and sister (twins) and as you can tell, Dad is rocking an almighty handlebar moustache.

The Galle Face Hotel, Columbo, Sri Lanka.

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Backstage Miuccia Prada declared her Fall 2012 Menswear show to be a 'Parody of male power.' A parade of stars including Gary Oldman, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe and Jamie Bell paraded one by one around the red square carpet 'as if following a secret script'. If you accept that actors play archetypes, then it seemed that each of them was representing a particular kind of man. It wasn't only the accompanying soundtrack of Michael Nyman's music from The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and her Lover that cued Tim Roth as a gangster and Adrien Brody as a dandy. Gary Oldman's performance was particularly impressive, calling it 'A two-minute theatre, a short blast of performance'.

Garrett Hedland.

Gary Oldman.

Adrien Brody.

Tim Roth.

Jamie Bell.

Willem Dafoe.

Nothing was as it seemed. The collection wasn't as simple as sartorial historicism. Many of the sharp formal clothes were actually cut from denim and what appeared from afar as wool or mohair was really cotton. Looking closer at the ornate, baroque patterning on the shirts and you can see rows of American football helmets or feathered Native American headdresses. Tailored topcoats woven in jacquard looked more like silk bathrobes and the formal white-tie neck gear was actually a mock turtle on a tee.

An awful lot of ingenious thought had gone into making a statement about the emptiness of dressing to impress, while at the same time, producing clothes that will entice men to do exactly that.