It was easy to be a little worried about David Koma s Spring presentation, now that the Georgian designer is the artistic director of Mugler. Since that was a lifelong dream for him, one wondered if he might put his heart and soul into Mugler at the expense of his eponymous line, or whether he d be able to multitask.
Koma s challenge was to make sure there was a distinct separation between his Mugler collection and his own, and also to breathe new life into his body-con aesthetic. The designer uses color sparingly—he is very architecturally oriented and often sticks to black and white—so it was a welcome surprise to see shots of citron yellow in the first looks. Color was introduced with restraint: a simple strip on just one side of some shorts, a pop of it on a waistline or collar.
The body-con pieces had cutout waists, sheer panel details, and organza overlay—add to all that the asymmetrical hem, and there were a lot of ideas not seen in previous Koma collections. A supersharp dress in electric blue or pure white had geometric cutouts and bathing-suit-strap details that added interest, but the real standouts were the crystal-embedded looks with minute handwork and meticulous geometry. All in all, Koma made his point: When it comes to his own line, he is definitely not asleep at the wheel.
