A.W.A.K.E. – Worth Getting Up Early For
Words by Ross Pollard (Disclaimer – Huge Space Geek)
“a Soviet aerobics class – sent to space.”
The description Natalia Alaverdian gave for this season takes us back, it channels both the movement and flow of the work out, the lifts, twists and steps of the high tempo exercise, then infuses it with the more simple, softer sense of the era of the cosmonaut when function was just as important as fashion.
Space travel in the Soviet era was about winning a race, the first satellite – Sputnik, the first animals to orbit the earth – Belka & Strelka, the first man in space – Yuri Gagarin, the first woman in space – Valentina Tereshkova, the first space walk – Alexei Leonov, among many other firsts, but it’s interesting how many of these achievements are understated, they exist in a world where space is now a razzle dazzle performance of billionaires battling to launch before each other, and the beauty of the golden age of space has passed from reference until now.
There is a mix of that beauty in understatement within A.W.A.K.E. it’s a beautiful collection that is as functional as it is alluring, dotted with pops of colour that burst forth like the roar of a space rocket or the shout above the high tempo pop music of the aerobics instructor.
In that sense of a collection that could be either, both or neither is it’s cleverness, it’s birth lay in the ideology of a movie, and as such a cast of characters has been formed within the garments. The collection at around 50 looks has created a tapestry that allows the mind to weave in a story, of the lives each represents, of the moods, passions and progressions of each model as an actress on a stage.
Perhaps at heart all designers are playwrights, but the replace the stage with fabric, the celluloid with shape and form, and the acting with the mood board?
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