Georgia Hardinge collection presentation for LFW S/S 2016

It was written in the stars this season, with designer Georgia Hardinge consulting her crystal ball in order to conjure up the mystical symbols of the zodiac for a prophetic spring/summer 2016 collection.  Georgia Hardinge looked upwards for her Dynasty collection, with the signs of Scorpio, Gemini, Taurus and Cancer literally translated onto skirts, backs of jackets and laser cut onto accordion pleated skirts.

The space was adorned with giant laser cut, 3D paper sculptures depicting eagles with their flapping wings, providing further inspiration for heat-set shapes and intricate laser techniques employed on pleats.  This conveyed Hardinge’s ongoing collaboration with a pleat specialist, who worked together to interpret Japanese stencil works and origami into Hardinge’s signature technical pleat designs. In this way, sculpture was built in with positive and negative directional shapes heat set into tops, skillfully providing architecture to the body.

Natural images of scorpions, crabs, elaborate floral designs and birds provided laser cut detailing on romantic gowns, flowing in silk, crepe and chiffon.  Merged layers of metallic leather formed wide asymmetric straps and a scalloped skirt hem.  Expertly shaped plunging v-neck fronts and backs, cut to flatter the feminine form worked well in a colour palette inspired by the 1970s era. Ivory silks, sunshine yellow and dusky almost-beige pinks were decorated with metallic and rust bronzed leather.  Extreme wide-legged, oversized culottes further reiterated this 70s theme.

Adorning one model in sensuous black pleating, with a full-length black pleated skirt and laser cut cape ending in a v-shape at the back was a perfect way to display the textural elements to the laser cut imagery. Londoner Georgia Hardinge played to a home crowd, after having trained at Parsons School of Art and Design in Paris.  The collection was thoroughly thought through and executed with such precision and an inherent understanding for complimenting a woman’s shape.  Paired with a unique technological aesthetic, it is no surprise that Hardinge’s work was awarded a contemporary sponsorship from the British Fashion Council and looking into the stars, we predict many more accolades for this designer.

Victoria Geaney
Photos: Filippo L’Astorina