Shrimps (Q9139)
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Shrimps is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Shrimps |
Shrimps is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith…and Eco Activist? It was the queen’s decision to stop wearing fur at the end of last year that put her front and center on the mood board of Shrimps designer Hannah Weiland for fall 2020. Okay, let’s be honest: It’s not like we’re going to see Her Majesty (wo)manning the barricades in the name of Extinction Rebellion any time soon. And yet, the 93-year-old monarch’s decision to ditch the fur is more proof of how the establishment (quite literally, in the queen’s case) is shifting on a material that has been fraught for so many for so long.Weiland’s Shrimps became known since it launched seven years ago for its championing of the fake stuff, a material that can be as problematic as the real thing, for very different reasons, and by doing it in a way that always has a youthful, playful edge. Working with an Italian mill committed to creating recycled and environmentally conscious fabrications, Weiland was able to offer for next fall the likes of a short sable-like fur with outsized regal gilded buttons (more racy Princess Margaret than stoic HRH QEII, TBH) and a rather terrific royal blue double-breasted coat, strictly fastened and belted, and rendered in something made to look like shearling. Sometimes the fakery was limited to a curvaceous/prim furry collar atop a plaid jacket worn with riding pants, or swept over the shoulders of a ’40s-look coat with a nipped waist and full skirt; both evoked a Balmoral vibe, and Weiland put the queen’s Scottish retreat on her invitation.
14 February 2020
Following February’s ancient Greece–inspired London Fashion Week runway debut for her young English label Shrimps, Hannah Weiland pivoted somewhat this season. We saw this collection back in July in her PR’s office, where its look book billed it a joint Resort and Spring 2020 offer. Despite the humdrum context, the pleasures inherent in the product were evident.As Weiland’s rep mentioned then, and the designer later confirmed over a WhatsApp call, the collection’s starting point was Dolly Parton. One country icon led to another, and thus a Roy Rogers-ish stylized cowboy accompanied by a Wonder Dog rechristened Pal also featured. Her broadly-brushed, kitschy Western theme gave Weiland rein to canter across a wide prairie of decorative reference. The house foundation faux fur coats came this time with horseshoe motifs or in leopard print with matching broad-brimmed hats, or in a Lassie western collage pattern. Bolo ties played against mismatched wash panel denim, and there was a super-cute section of pretty-pretty dresses and cropped pants in scarlet bandana print (also big in men’s streetwear right now) that came, as many pieces did here, with pearly embellishments.Weiland spoke interestingly about her lack of affection for digital print and her keenness instead on pattern that has a “painterly” feel. This was demonstrated in a seersucker attractively spackled with a green and brown floral that looked hand-drawn in marker pen. Around 50 percent of Shrimps’s commercial catch comes thanks to its accessories, and there was an ample offer of cutely-detailed bags barnacled with pearly beading in country-touched designs. Although U.S. Western in flavor, the gleefully saturated color and embellishments that played against dainty silhouette and frill in this collection were consistent with Shrimps’ U.K. West country roots.
5 September 2019
It was Athena, the goddess of wisdom and culture, and her legion of powerfully pretty nymphs, who reigned down over Shrimps’s Fall runway debut. To better conjure her siren-like muses, designer Hannah Weiland had the British artist Ryan Driscoll paint a huge neoclassical fresco. This Grecian narrative sprung to life over the summer, when Weiland had immersed herself in the feminist odysseys of author Madeline Miller and the “Mythos” audio book of English wit Stephen Fry. “I was drawn to these strong figures of femininity and power,” she said. “The stories of Greek mythology are so much about culture and art, and that’s why I wanted the girls to walk out from this backdrop like living myths.”Weiland’s gang of goddesses were clothed in prom dresses in polka dots and playful, mythological prints of Weiland’s own design, whose beautiful puff sleeves and fitted bodices nodded to the ’80s. There were floaty Grecian frocks accessorized with pearly Alice bands and Heidi hair; some of the dresses were cinched at the waist with raffia sashes featuring embellished Greek wreath buckles and matching hair clips. Dramatic floor-sweeping coats and capes came in a light and feathery woollike faux fur, with twists and coils that mimicked the spools of yarn you would find in a knitting shop.The show’s fruit-salad palette of apricot, banana, and orange gave rise to a checkerboard print that resembled Battenberg cake, which covered knits, tights, and coats. And what of the bags, whose sales have seen an enormous increase over the last few seasons? Here, the pearly powers of her best-selling Antonia bag (named after Antonia Marsh, the Soft Opening art gallerist who introduced her to Driscoll) took on the structure of treasure chests and shells, in a nod to Amphitrite, goddess of the sea. It’s been six years since the London designer first founded her faux-fur brand, and this romantic display of frocks and femininity finally brought the full scope of her whimsical vision to life.
19 February 2019
It’s been an exceptionally busy summer for Shrimps founder Hannah Weiland. In June, she married brewery scion Arthur Guinness in a dress of her own design. “It felt a little bit like a fashion show—except I was the star,” she said of the stylish occasion, which was followed by a honeymoon on the Amalfi Coast (a clue to her forthcoming Pre-Fall debut). The designer has also just unveiled a line of girlish homewares for the stalwart British brand Habitat. The upshot of this flurry of activity is that this season, Weiland forewent an on-schedule presentation, offering instead a condensed collection that merged Resort and Spring 2019.“It’s quite nice to experiment,” she said, scrolling through the lookbook imagery photographed on her husband’s family farm in Marlborough, Wiltshire, costarring their Shetland pony, Jerry. All this rural romance seeped into a collection that started with the pansy-embroidered lace dress that Weiland wore for her own post-nuptials brunch. Drawing on influences that spanned fromHeiditoLittle House on the Prairie, she created a veritable bouquet of floral motifs—most notably the daffodil. “That’s my birthday flower,” she said. “Every year—even now—my mother makes daffodil tête-à-têtes in miniature pots as party bags. I feel it’s a flower that’s really underrepresented in fashion.” To redress the balance, Weiland applied her own inky rendering to a whimsical series of check organza looks. It was also there on a signature faux fur coat in a fiery-looking relief whose knitted design managed to mimic the painterly effect of Weiland’s original watercolor.The pastoral theme continued on another standout coat depicting a rural scene borrowed from one of the needlework samplers that Weiland’s parents collect. That artwork was redone in pearl form, too, on one of the hit Antonia beaded bags that were first introduced for Fall ’15 and don’t stop selling out (a rare thing for such a young British brand). Weiland capitalized on this success by taking her red-hot accessory in new directions: There was one in gingham, one in daffodil yellow floral beading, and a new flowery, circular-shaped Buttercup bag. Pearls have become something of a Shrimps motif, and they were used here on barrettes and embellishments on coat pockets. “Women love sparkly things,” said Weiland. “I love sparkly things. And it’s endless what you can do.”
18 September 2018
Back in 2013, just as she was about to do her first show for her fake-fur label Shrimps, Hannah Weiland received a poem from her younger brother. At her presentation today, she paraphrased its wording, but essentially, it went something like this: “Some had doubts, but you proved them wrong; faux is in and fur is out.” Pretty prescient, given the way so many big-name designers—Michael Kors, Alessandro Michele at Gucci—are reexamining their relationship with using some animal skins in their collections. Yet, if their worlds are changing, Weiland’s has been expanding. Not only does she continue to do the terrific vividly hued oversize and OTT fake outerwear she made the Shrimps name with, she’s also been adding the likes of other pieces into the mix for quite some time now. And so far, it’s been working; they’ve got the same unabashed and unashamed girlyness to them and are loaded with charm.Next Fall is no different. While Weiland was designing the collection, she was also thinking about her forthcoming marriage to Arthur Guinness this June in a small town outside Bath, England. You can’t, then, exactly blame her for going all out with the reds and pinks, the hearts and flowers. “The main inspiration is romance,” Weiland said during a chat at her presentation. “But I was also thinking about Gertrude Stein, who was an advocate for the avant-garde. I love that.” Stein was there in body (the short choppy wigs with the mini bangs were based on Stein’s iconic hairdo) and spirit; there was a quirky, off-kilter sense of things to the proportions, which were layered and voluminous, and to the touches of eccentricity she introduced—graphically splicing together contrasting patterns for one dress, for instance, or layering a red smock dress over floppy, wide pants.The fake fur—“I love working with it for its softness and the way it takes color,” Weiland said—was supplemented with faux leather, tulle etched with wool embroideries, and hand-drawn prints. One riffed on Stein’s “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose,” with Weiland changing it to “A Shrimp is a Shrimp.” She chose it not only because of her fondness for the doyenne of the prewar Parisian literary world, but also because Weiland’s middle name is Rose. It’s by always keeping her label so personal and real to who she is that it is always charming. Nothing fake about that.
20 February 2018