Luckily, the lovely Lorna had my notebook, so I received it today. Here it is in my slightly greasy, oily palm (I accidentally put my hand in some wood varnish today... don't ask), complete with my list of LFW notes and all my careless scribblings, ready to be shaped and moulded into something coherent, which might not happen, because I am still whacked out on painkillers.
But perhaps being slightly stoned is no bad thing, especially when considering Holly Fulton's collection. Don't get me wrong. Hallucinogens are used in some religious ceremonies to commune with a higher power and her collection is operating on a higher plane. Or, to quote my favourite stoner Jeff Spicoli (Lebowski doesn't even get a look in), "Awesome, totally awesome! All right, Hamilton!"
I was lucky enough to have a good sift through Fulton's current season in The Topshop NEWGEN area and her stuff is amazing, appealing on a sensory level of colour and tactility that made me want to rip everything off the rails and sleep in a big ol' pile of Swarovski-studded fur clutches, acetate collars and snakeskin shift dresses. Spring/Summer is no different.
Fulton has stayed true to her Art Deco leanings and has firmly established an identity that would make anyone worth their fashion chops know one of her pieces from a hundred paces. Yet her clothing doesn't just look good in teeny catwalk pictures, it looks even better close up.
Last season, she introduced fur trimmings and this season she has progressed yet again on the trimming front. This looks like raffia or maybe hair (or more fur, even. If you know what it is, please let me know) and it's placed in a flirty way, horizontally across the hips, thighs and hem. The lines of the clothing are very sixties resort, and remind me a bit of the film oldie Gidget, in which a oh-so-sassy teen goes to the beach with her family and learns to surf.
Oh, perforated leather. Has it ever been done so well? I ended up spending minutes poring over the patterns of perfectly popped out circles on several Fulton garments, so much so that I thought that I was going into a trance. The best thing about looking at these dresses close up is realising that the patterns that Fulton uses aren't abstract at all but are very concrete things. Last season it was the telephone that kept popping up in garments (a serious instrument of the technology and status obsessed 30's Deco elite). This season it's the martini glass, as seen in the pic of the dress above, on the right.
That's not to say that there's no progression in terms of design, because it's evident that Fulton is thinking of what her next sartorial move might be - to stick or stray away from the Art Deco influence? These dresses are beautiful, but remind me of the cartoonish motifs of JC de Castelbajac or the sparkly-sequinned goodness of Ashish, which is ironic when you consider that those two labels have pretty much stuck fast to the same design vision and ethos since Day 1.
What do you think of Ms Fulton?
