#LFW: ROKSANDA AW23 Collection

Continuing the narrative of intimacy and excelled emotions, the collection reflects the importance of having one’s own path and equally the courage to execute it. From these contradictions emerge new connections, allowing profoundly intimate dialogue with oneself and the wider community. Through this, live words by artist and poet Arch Hades’ latest work Arcadia are narrated harmonically.

Inspired by the Japanese visual artist, Atsuko Tanaka — an important member of the post-war artistic movement Gutai, to which the artist was welcomed then rejected by the founder — the coexistence of fragility and strength are mirrored in the collections’ optimistic effervescence, dramatic radiance, and elegant sheerness celebrating the human tactility against the machine.

Championing the brand’s rich artistic oeuvre, abstract expressionism is interpreted as luxurious silks become canvases to explorative print techniques creating illusions of layered silhouettes, allowing multiple areas of color to create a distinct trompe-l’oeil effect. The technique is further extended to develop a fil-coupé fabric, woven onto a delicate silk organza base, from which gravity seems to be melting elements of the gown. Elsewhere, recycled crushed taffeta in foiled gold and silver are applied onto innovative architectural constructions allowing unexpected negative spaces. The thematic continuity of sheltering, unapologetic femininity, and a sense of refuge highlights the feminine body and its envelope — emphasized through delicate silks overlaid by floor-sweeping woolen capes.

Volume is taken to extremes and merged with artistic ultra-feminine formations of circular shapes repeated throughout the collection. Holistically considered from a 360 angle, they forge sculptural colored circles evolving towards geometric abstraction. Similar to Tanaka’s renowned work Electric Dress, the unexpected forms and notions of the collection invites a deeper connection between the creation of the body and craft, beauty and technology.

Tailoring and outerwear remains powerful while new structures are introduced through increasingly defined waistlines. Exaggerated proportions and extended panels of fabric wrapped around the bodice form new-found silhouettes, neither feminine nor masculine. Original hand-made patterns in bright crimson and yellow are applied by needle punching — using the artisanal technique Agugliatura to form organic, abstract lines, elevating fine wool coats and over-layers. Surface and swaths become one inseparable fabric.

Soft nappa leather accessories in the brand’s unmistakable colors are repurposed and reconstructed with foam elements featured at necklines and as straps creating a modern, distinctive synergy with classic footwear by Manolo Blahnik.

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