As the Libertine SS15 Ready to Wear show ran, social media pulsed. As it closed, better, threw a cast party, perhaps, is the better phrase – fashion voyeurs “liked” the images frantically. Frantic pulsing might well describe the collection, if that can be a laud. It is, in this case. Prints, baubles, beads, raw edges, text, structure, and even paint splatters came together in a coherent expression of life.
Johnson Hartig and Cindy Greene executed on their creativity with joy and intellect. There was so much in each piece that one has to pour over each stitch and fold to make sure that there isn’t a subversive message everyone else might get – but you missed. There might be a story in the text on a coat, or maybe even morse code somehow patterned into the colored puffballs on sweaters. Maybe it’s crazy talk to look for all this in a single set of 36 pieces of clothing, but something says Libertine’s designers might chuckle knowingly at the thought.
by Alison Santighian
Images courtesy Style.com