L.A. Fashion Week Fall '10: martinMARTIN
True to its anti-fashion design ethos, martinMARTIN attempts to disrupt the codes of traditional dress. The Los Angeles–based label went “Into The Darkness of a Coloured Garden” for Fall 2010, which showed March 23 at Concept L.A. Fashion Week in downtown Los Angeles.
“We’re always moving our aesthetic more into darkness,” explained Eric Martin, who designs the collection with his wife and partner, Diane. “But we wanted to explore the dark jewel tones of gardens. There is no hidden or subversive theme to be taken from that.”
Martin said he and his wife were thinking of romanticism and the expression of emotion over reason while designing the new collection. They drew from the humble aspects of workwear, the ongoing influence of the punk movement and the elements of anti-style, which forms the basis of the collection. Most noticeable this season was the color infusion to the typically black and gray palette. Aubergine, red, olive and brown mixed well with gray and black undertones.
Workwear-inspired pieces came in shades of olive and pretty draped dresses were made in a liquid-silk satin. Wax treatments added dimension to men’s coats and shirtings. The collection juxtaposed the pretty sculptural shapes of dresses with the dark edge of punk, playing with the idea of beauty and ugliness.—N. Jayne Seward
