I'm in love....

I have fallen in love...with Michael Van der Ham. My flat mate Laura Searle has been constantly talking about him ever since she saw him show within Fashion East last season. And she was right to harp on! It was truly amazing.

The collection used the surreal Hollywood costumes of Adrian, the renowned MGM designer. This influence was then combined with 'conventional fashion details such as jersey stretch tops and men's shirts.' Every piece was a montaged dream. Its difficult to describe the silhouette as garments were pieced together with unusal seam placement, more or less everything was assymetric, dresses were long and short, necklines were high and then low, but everything had such a unique look about it. Contrasting fabrics melted into each other and flowed around the body.

There was obviously an incredible amount of work that went into the sourcing of the fabrics; the press release stated that fabrics were aourced from, 'diverse decades and countries,' and 'Michael is adding custom made materials.' And you could tell! There were crushed velvets, satins, jersey and lame featuring prints based on surrealist designers such as Elisa Schiaparelli. It kind of seems like it shouldn't have worked but somehow did.

One of my faves...it seems like a mismatch of random drape and fabrics jigsawed together, but it works so beautifully in the colours and feels new and modern.

I appreciate that this isn't to everyone's taste; the commerciality of the pieces is debatable. I have read blogs that have slated it...I personally feel that being creative and producing new and innovative garments deserves an appreciation. The originality and workmanship that have gone into this collection makes it stand out.

All photos by Lauren Sanins, others by Dazeddigital. For the video of the show finale, type laurensanins into youtube.com