This Saul Nash collection was a deft navigation through the sometimes opposing currents of social and sexual identity, powered by the notion of masquerade. Backstage, the London-born designer said his starting point had struck him while partying at the Notting Hill Carnival. After an opening performance that echoed the masquerade tradition of Nash’s Guyanese grandparents, the first look imposed the first layer of ambiguity: a pale green jumpsuit in washed crinkled nylon was worn off the body, almost dress-like, below a T-shirt imprinted with one of the nipple-baring henleys from Nash’s last collection.
The designer’s work tends to oscillate between the sportswear of his experienced milieu and the suited power dressing of the notional establishment. The way he blends those elements, exploring their overlaps and differences, can be interesting and highly appealing. His shirting fabric and construction jumpsuits, plain shirting using striped sections as ergonomic emphases, hooded pinstripe jackets, trench/track top hybrids, and tromp l’oeil pinstripe suit tracksuits were all pieces whose interrogation of “fitting in” made them so attractively different. Simpler looks, such as an aubergine toned polo neck shirt with snap buttons worn over a raised seam track pant, were elegant new-formal proposals.
Nash’s ongoing capsule for Lululemon featured trademark kinetic tailoring gestures and abstract chromatic print finishes, and complemented the mainline. There was a new Nash-designed shoe, a velcro-fastened mesh and leather boot with gum soles that looked both utilitarian and refined. Wool scarfs, pants and sweaters were patterned with vaguely Heinz Edelmann silhouettes of outstretched hands and open arms.
Said Nash: “Looking at different ways to put things together that maybe don’t belong together sets me free creatively. Because I can imagine things that I’ve never seen.” And who’s to say they don’t belong together, anyway? “Exactly!”
