No I haven't forgotten to draw arms....

After a day of not looking at shows, I was excited to see what Paris had to offer. Margiela has to be one of my favourites so far. When I started looking through the collection, I have to admit, at the beginning I was slightly bored. It began with a masculine shirt and trouser outfit; nothing groundbreaking. But as it went on, silhouettes started getting much more exciting. Trenches, shirts, blazers, trousers had a boxey, cube, 2-dimensional quality to them. Trousers looked like they had been held in front of the model, the waist extending far from the natural line. There were some really interesting sequinned pieces nearer the end, mixing patterns, creating something technically brilliant!

It may look like I've just drawn squares on a figure but models were wearing 'garments' that had been stretched over pieces of cardboard, making them look flat as they walked down the catwalk. The shirt began the idea and then it evolved from there.

This was an interesting take on a simple, almost office like cardigan and pencil skirt outfit, except the cardigan was crumpled in certain places creating a really sculptural shape. I do feel like these outfits work from seeing catwalk images, as seeing the side and their flatness ruins the illusion.

Loved this dress and the draping around the neck on such a structured shape...and the sunglasses hanging from the shoulder were a humourous addition.

There was a range of ideas, from interesting shapes, to embellishments, twists in the fabric or drape, but everything stemmed back to this conceptual and interesting box silhouette. It was new and forward thinking and refreshing from a lot of the minimalist dressing seen in other collections. It was quite clearly not a wearable collection, but I think this is partly what made it refreshing.

Top image..from Grey Magazine.
Bottom image from Pop magazine. I remembered this shoot from an old Pop magazine and thought the idea of clothing that looked flat would be a really interesting concept.

Sketches by Lauren Sanins, images from Vogue.com