There s a fine line between procrastination and work. When director Ken Russell died a little over two years ago, Giles Deacon was inspired to re-watch his films, such as his landmark adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence novel Women in Love. At the time, this may have seemed so much distraction, but this season, Deacon s immersion in the Russell oeuvre bore tasty fruit. As he explained of this Giles collection, it was inspired by a certain kind of young woman who reappeared in Russell s work: a posh girl, rather uptight, but "blossoming and burgeoning," in Deacon s words. He was imagining that girl traveling to London to meet a filmmaker like Russell, and getting swept up in the mod scene and the director s own escalating provocations.
Anyway, Deacon likes a backstory. This one gave him a strong peg on which to hang his interest in decadence—of the operatic, historical kind on the one hand and the pop-tastic, nightclub-y kind on the other. Op art polka dots and baroque wallpaper jacquards had a meeting of the minds here. Likewise, Deacon did a fine job yoking together his sense of nattiness, evidenced in the discipline of these retro-ish silhouettes, and his anarchic streak, which found an outlet in a chaotic bright pink print and in luxe jacquards in a pattern of chain link. A pale pink chain-link jacquard suit was a particular winner; it captured the appeal of this collection overall—very neat and very twisted.
