I have recently discovered Cos stores, by way of my sister on her recent trip to Berlin.
I find myself taken by geometry, and what I like about their stuff is that German knack for pulling off lines and angles.
Take this dress for instance:
You have the downward angle of the shoulders, which is so pronounced, with the sharp cut of the sleeves contrasting with the folds of the neck that come down past her waist, even. I am a fan of hybridizing hard lines with the odd feminine touch, and I like the way the neck softens it up.
More lines:
I like the geometry of the trapezoid body with the triangle arms. Bold shapes, conservative colors.
Or look at this coat:
It's so simple and yet, it's got a pop to it. The 3/4 sleeves, for example, and the way the collar lists to the side. The muted grey on grey seems to bring out the structure of it, sort of the way a photo with a shallow depth of field leads your eye to what's important.
My sister claims to have brought back a pair of these pants:
They are fun design-y pants, but my initial critique was that sure they look good on this model with her parallel line legs, but some people have a little curve. To which my sister countered, yeah they'll look different on everyone, but different in a good way. And I think that's a noble goal for a pair of pants.
2 comments:
you know, i also appreciate the structure of these items, but what i appreciate more is a subtle structure underneath things that are softer and more subtle. though i do appreciate the angularity of these outfits. and YEAH, that model has the teenist legs i've ever seen...it's a fine art, merging a lady-body with structure!
I don't know that I'd ever actually wear any of these clothes - though I'm tempted to try on that dress - but I like the idea of the structure/function being the beautiful part instead of having a plain shape and then adding some pretty thing on afterward. Functional beauty, that's what I like. This just happens to be a particularly obvious example.
Finding the shapes that look good on you is another skill all together. Ideally, I'd imagine a flattering shape and then achieve that shape in a beautiful way, using pintucks instead of hidden darts or sewing with contrast color thread &c. The same tricks get old, though, and it's a challenge to invent new ways to make something beautiful structurally instead of creating something purely for function and then adding the aesthetics shallowly on top.
Teeshirts, for example, are generally boring. Some have a more flattering shape than others, but the shirt itself is kind of dull, so people screenprint some clever words or a fancy picture on top, and that's a nice way to make human canvases, but I appreciate when people play with the cut of the shirt itself to make it visually interesting enough to stand on its own.
Post a Comment