Speaking after their show today, Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos explained that their key reference this time out was the L.A.-based artist Ken Price. As a ceramicist, Price was particularly clever at creating a sense of depth and dappled variety in his glazes. As the maker of surreal, two-dimensional landscape images, he gave his work a cinematic quality and evoked a world of gaudy color. Pilotto and De Vos absorbed all those aspects of Price s technique into their new collection. And the results were intriguing: Essentially, De Vos and Pilotto elaborated their engineered prints with embroideries, in particular lace that they layered over brightly colored printed fabrics. But that was just a surface effect.
The really compelling thing about today s show was its take on the hourglass silhouette. The most emphasized shape here was a sculpted full skirt; in some cases, a crinoline underneath was exposed. It is very, very hard to make a crinoline look relevant, but De Vos and Pilotto seemed determined to discover an expression for the full skirt shape that didn t seem costumey and/or atavistic. This wasn t Dior s New Look, for sure. And this season s Pilotto girl certainly wasn t demure, what with her muscular, Céline-like sleeves and skin winking from cut-out tops and dresses.
That said, the looks here were indeed rather sweet—even the ones most indebted to Price s rather grotesque abstract forms. There were the short, printed pencil skirts, for instance, which featured a kind of half ruffle; they were paired with skin-baring tops, the flutter of which echoed the ruffle s undulating form. Frankly, it kind of looked like some dark creature had gotten ahold of the model s legs and was trying to pull her into the deep. Somehow, De Vos and Pilotto made that look cute. They made crinoline look sort of futuristic, too. This was a collection full of contradiction.
