Pretty Patchwork

I’m stuck in a style rut. Getting dressed only to go to the shops (still not anywhere near comfortable going out for something to eat given all the localised Coronavirus outbreaks up and down the UK), my outfits are getting a bit stale and repetitive. The novelty of getting dressed to go to Tesco is wearing pretty thin.

So I have been trying to find inspiration anywhere it lives. Looking at collections past and present from designers of all kinds, even ones I don’t normally pay much attention to.

For example the Viktor & Rolf Spring Couture 2020. Not a label I usually pay much attention to as generally their creations are not my cup of tea, but for 2020 they gave a nod to vaguely historical silhouettes and that’s good enough for me. There is also a healthy nod to Laura Ingalls Wilder and Holly Hobbie but with a new spin on it - these are prairie girls and dolls with plenty of tattoos and attitude.

Viktor & Rolf began using their own fabric leftovers to create new haute couture creations back in 2016. With they used up all that fabric, they turned to an archive of swatches sent to them by suppliers that they had never thrown away. This is why they have created the patchwork lexicon that runs through the collections, giving each piece a more craft and DIY aesthetic. Which I’m very much on board with.