It's amazing how the
pristine and unblemished can sometimes be remixed to look macabre and downright
sinister. Chalk it up to someone's vivid imagination or odd
perspective. For instance, there's someone quite beautiful and almost
picturesque and organic about a papal procession with the swinging incensories. Now in the same breath imagine the portrayed perception over the
years of the mysteries hidden beneath the seemingly sinless all white
robe. The symbolic beauty of the shed blood and broken flesh as sacrifice
remixed to uncover the sacrifice as more for something heinous and ghastly than
ceremonial and redeeming.
Inspiration from
everywhere, even religion, the dark sides of it and the
organic elements of blood, earth, smoke, air and water can serve as factors to
both titillate and terrify as was the case with the Skingraft Spring/Summer
2015 collection.
Pulling inspiration from practices of the syncretic ritual-based religion of Santeria, Jonny Cota showed a collection that cleverly brought Skingraft's dark aesthetic into
the Spring/Summer season. Not straying from the usual primary, grayscale
and monochromatic color palette Skingraft's S/S collection focused on a
lightness with collaborative images from artist Jordan Eagles reminiscent of smoke trails printed onto white fabrics in breezy cuts
and easy sportswear silhouettes. There was a particular focus on the dark beauty of
blood, fluid or congealed for which Eagles has a penchant for, with the presence of textured and printed vibrant
reds over the same gossamer lightness and languid shapes.
Never skimping on the brand's
favorite color of black, the color was present in a variety of fabrics and cuts
again like fluid hooded outerwear, bondage-esque swimwear and moto
jackets. Eagles' abstract clustered and haunting fleur de lis-like prints and wovens on white sheers and
in that fresh drawn blood color had an energy of the ornate elegance applied to
ritual and sacrificial imagery and objects. Of particular beauty
were some amazing papery thin leathers rendered in tees, shifts and full cut
shorts that anchored the brand's aesthetic as well as completed an interesting
tactile balance to the presence of the blood and sacrificial references.
In one runway stomp
Skingraft managed to make the macabre see less so, which is what good fashion
inspiration serves to do. Fashion takes what isn't necessarily
fashionable and proposes that it could be just that. Whether you support
the dark connection or not is not really the point; you should just want to
wear it.
Photos by Randy Brooke
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