An impressive zen-like set, designed by scenographer Mathias Renner, became the abode for the Casasola woman yesterday at her second LFW show in King’s Cross, serving up a kind of tranquil interior paradise, based upon Barabara Casasola’s chic Brazilian origins. The setting gave the audience an intimate Rear Window-esque voyeuristic view at the sheer stripped back sensuality of the collection, which introduces the faultless tailoring from her Pitti “Guest Womenswear Designer” capsule collection in January.
Casasola’s mood board for the season was offered to the attendees at the show, a novel touch, and in breaking down the mood board, from style savvy muses, such as the great Lauren Bacall and Casasola’s spirit animal, musician Jamie Bochert, to the hedonistic photography of pop-surrealist Guy Bourdin, we see the basis of the palette of lush colours set against moody nudes and blacks.
Whilst Brazil remains the essential reference for one of the nation’s leading designers, she chose to explore one of her most conspicuous obsession, the unclothed female form, hence the independent spirit of sheer ensembles revealing a scantily clad body.
These bodies were cloaked in transparent fabrics contrasted with solids, alongside the disparity of matte and polished finishes, revealing a persuasion for opposites. Mixing restraint and movement, silhouettes composed of pure silks, virgin wools and technical weaves, in some instances topped off by large, wide brimmed fedoras, and complimented by the abstract Florence clutch, making its catwalk debut, suggest that Casasola has orchestrated a tone that sounds out a successful future.
by Liam Feltham
Images courtesy of Style.com