À La Disposition SS12: Mechanical Failure

A trio of girls opened the À La Disposition show at Vauxhall Fashion Scout, working together in a choreographed walk down the catwalk. The design duo behind the label, Daniel Kinne and Lynda Cohen, play with controlled restraint and explosive volume. The collection is titled Mechanical Failure and throughout the show it did feel a little like each model was a cog in a wider mechanical structure.
Yet at the same time some of the colours were versions of very natural ones with the muted warm tones and greens. There was an unusual mix of fabrics at work, some jewel colours in a metallic sheen and some that felt more like a uniform, in some ways implicating the models were restricted. The colours and textures don't all classically go together. However, they have been expertly placed in a way that is defiant but subtle. The first stripes and the shimmering purple stood out for me as favourites.
Throughout the collection are strong juxtapositions: the angular and the curved, the sleek and the voluminous, the simplistic and the complicated with layer upon layer of fabric manipulation. The constructions were all very elegantly executed.
The centre parting and little plaits of the hairstyle have an innocent feel to them and yet the style continues around the neck like a chain, giving it a discomforting edge. The eyeshadow was deep and moody. I was a huge fan of the chic shoes Anastasia Radevich created for À La Disposition. It was a sleek collection with heaps of attitude.