RENOWNED for their non-conformist attitude, Finnish fashion house Aalto transcends the regular in their AW19 collection. Ultra-psychedelic with elements of French refinement, the collection interweaves club and rave culture into street-style.
A celebration of the experimental, Aalto explores psychedelic prints, a nod to 1960s counter-culture and psychedelia in art. Bold, surrealist, and wonderfully bizarre, Aalto manages to bring a certain level of refinery and sophistication to the over-the-top exuberant prints and patterns. Keeping in line with 1960s’ style, the collection plays with mini-skirts, tartan, and berets, experimenting with the colour palette of these pieces in their reinvention of 1960s fashion trends. Additionally, experimenting with ideas of masculine and feminine, with loose-fitting silhouettes and structured tailoring, Aalto continues their exploration of genderless fashion. While the designs project gender fluidity, Aalto does incorporate some feminine aspects in the collection, predominantly the use of satin and floral prints.
A step away from his previous collection, Tuomas Merikoski discards simple minimalism, indulging in the bold vibrancy of colour and print. While maintaining Aalto’s signature elegant and polished image, Merikoski embraces contrasting textures, patterns and colours, a breath of fresh air for the fashion house. One of the most memorable pieces was a spliced trench-style puffer jacket, waving together different fabrics and shapes in his experimentation with the conceptualisation of outer-wear. Reinventing the puffer-jacket, Aalto demonstrates their non-conformity through the collection.
Accessories are another strong suit of the collection, particularly the chunky necklaces, sunglasses, and different variations of berets. Refined, understated, and minimal, the accessory designs contrast with the over-the-top psychedelia of the collection, bringing Aalto’s characteristic refined sophistication. Quintessentially Parisian, Aalto’s collection presents the relationship between the raw and the elegant.
by Emma Hart