Graeme Black (Q4186)
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Graeme Black is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Graeme Black |
Graeme Black is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
At Graeme Black's show a year ago, he spun an atmospheric backstory that the subsequent catwalk presentation didn't live up to. It happened again for Spring 2010. Black imagined a world where the extravagance of the maharajas hybridized with British colonial culture in an Art Deco hotbed. There was scene-setting aplenty in the birdsong-and-sitar soundtrack and the wafting dry ice that suggested dawn over the Ganges. The extravagance was taken care of by the real jewelry (by Moussaieff), which required 20 bodyguards. But, inspirations aside, Black always seems to picture a woman dressing for life on a 24/7 red carpet. If the Raj was reflected in jewel-toned silks and there was a khaki hint of the military Brit in epauletted jackets and jodhpurs, the heart of the collection was really a heyday-of-Hollywood glamour. That meant dresses shirred or draped or fishtailed and jersey gowns trailing trains or worn with sandals for that at-home-with-the-Selznicks look. If that sounds casual, it wasn't. Black doesn't really do "relaxed." The daywear that accompanied this glam slam, for example, was exemplified by his first outfit—a white croc jacket, lean white trouser, and maroon silk blouse tied at the waist. The luxe is strictly old-school—bodyguards need apply.
19 September 2009
One of the incidental pleasures of London fashion week is its occasional surprise-sightseeing opportunities. It's not every day, after all, that the fashion crowd finds itself invited to sit on gold chairs in Spencer House, once the city abode of an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales, and now owned by Jacob Rothschild. Suffice it to say that the breathtaking eighteenth-century decor conclusively puts the Windsors' Buckingham Palace in the shade.The setting tells you all you need to know about the in Graeme Black has among a certain breed of private-minded clients, the kind who quite obviously are at the furthest possible remove from the regular youth-driven, raw-edged shenanigans of the London shows. As an ex-assistant of Giorgio Armani, Black is to London what Ralph Rucci is to New York: someone who applies his own convictions to design in luxe fabric and conceptual decoration without much troubling to fall in with the external flow of trend. This season, he said his collection evolved from "taking the wrong turn" at the London Natural History Museum and ending up in the mineral room. That detour prompted curviform shapes, marbled prints, and internal textures vaguely suggesting crystals. The silhouettes—basically Poiret wraps over short, fitted dresses—didn't vary much, and might prove awkward for anyone with less-than-perfect legs. It looked better when he relaxed the structure in a softer bouclé knit coat or threw in a metallic sequined blazer or stepped up the sense of occasion with a white feathered cocktail dress. There's a sense that Black's is a world isolated and—who knows?—even insulated from any of the realities that motivate most women to buy.
20 February 2009
The show notes invoked the wild romance of the Hebrides. Seagulls cawed and waves broke on the soundtrack. The scene was well and truly set…then Graeme Black proceeded to offer 40 or so outfits that finessed his inspirations into sophisticated stasis. The first passage was a gown that fell from the throat in a snowy white cascade, a pristine sail that would never see sea air. If the little jacket—basket-woven from strips of leather—had done a better job of evoking the Scottish fisherman's net that was Black's starting point, it might have had more charm than the anonymously luxe finished product.Black has clearly mastered the art of dressing Milan's haute bourgeoisie. That is, after all, the city where the former Ferragamo designer found his fortune. But while there's no faulting his level of craftsmanship, there was something stiff about the clothes, even with a white cotton ruffle on a jacket pocket (well, that was fussy, not stiff), or chiffon ruffles cascading round the dip of a blouse's back. That shirt was paired with a pencil skirt, a silhouette that cropped up a few times. So did doubled gowns, where a sail of fabric floated over a body-hugging column. At least the movement suggested whitecaps whipping in the wind. In the context of Hebridean inspiration (rope coiled on old fishing boats, mercury seas, sculptural rock stacks—Black can certainly turn a phrase), the gold sequin disco jacket was a discord, but it was the liveliest thing on the catwalk.
13 September 2008