maarten’s minute

I didn’t yet have a blog when Mark Fast’s third collection hit; so, backtracking a bit (so unfashion, no?), I now have the outlet to examine his past season’s work. Consisting of just 15 looks, the Canadian expatriate (originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, but trained at the prestigious St. Maarten’s in London) knitwear designer’s A/W ’09 aesthetic borrows from body-con extraordinaire Azzedine Alaia to explore the atmosphere’s many instabilities. Fast recreates squalls and thunderstorms with flowing, almost splash-y viscose strands and ladder-like runs, a tailored yet trashy hat-tip to Alaia’s methods. The dresses are short and skintight, evoking a stormy streetwalker appeal. His braided pieces look like siblings of Christophe Decarnin, but are decisively more contemporary (Balmain is strictly 80′s as of late). Educated by Louise Wilson, he’s one of only two knitwear graduates to show to raves and was recently featured on Another Magazine’s S/S ’09 cover (see below). His collection was one of my past season’s favorites and seems to get better with every glance. I look forward to seeing his growth in the next few seasons.

Below is a favorite cardigan of mine which looks like an obvious ode to Fast’s knits with a necklace Jackson made for my friend Michelle (shouts: M.Viau)

(To view full size images, click the thumbnails.)

Another Wilsonite, Mary Katrantzou, showed for the first time this past spring in London. Her concept was topnotch: flipping what Jean Paul Gaultier and Givenchy did with their female body-as-perfume bottle’s upside down, she placed colorful perfume bottle graphics on top of simple shift dresses to flatter the figure. The dress’s silk-printed graphics give a mirage-like silhouette unlike any form-fitting, draping, or fabric manipulation. Her jewelry line is also unlike any other. With the help of a furniture maker in Greece, she creates insane, unwearable pieces made exclusively for the pages of fashion glossies (see below). Another designer to watch.