For Spring 2016, designer Gilles Mendel looks East for inspirational source material, citing Japan as his primary point of reference. The influence of Japonisme travels through the collection of kimono-inspired prints and origami folds, and beyond, informing an overriding sense of precision, rigor and control that bring to order the feminine exuberance for which J. Mendel is known.
For day, a layering of separates offers a sporty ease and new sense of proportion. Skirts are short and asymmetric, or ankle skimming and pencil-straight. The former brush the thigh in neat origami folds, while the latter fall in tight micro-pleats to give a somewhat restrained reading of the classic J. Mendel flourish. Both versions take on a casual elegance when paired with roomy, longer-length tunic tops and boxy, oversized tees.
Outerwear, too, follows a relaxed, sporty approach, which nonetheless (or perhaps all the more) puts the expertise of the fur atelier on full display. A white mink intarsia cropped vest, for instance, disappears into a lightweight drawstring parker, perfectly mimicking its abstract print. Even the more overtly showy fur pieces, like a pair of vivid yagasuri intarsia long mink vests, assume an air of breeziness courtesy of anorak style drawstrings and high-slit side vents.
Embroidered metallic rings are used as a reoccurring motif, underscoring the tension between femininity and rigor that can be felt throughout the collection. Used to accentuate skirt slits and folds, or repeat yagasuri patterns seen elsewhere, they give even the most delicate of dresses a certain cool-girl attitude.
Lean and controlled though the silhouette may be, the collection is visually energetic, with a predominance of color and print. Graphic patterns derived from traditional Japanese textiles and wood-block prints are abstracted and hand-drawn, finding expression in textured silk crepe, snakeskin and shifted intarsia fur alike.
As the clothes move into cocktail hour, the prints dissolve into blurred florals and ombré chevrons as the clothes themselves take on an increased sense of delicacy. An Impressionist sensibility to color pervades, with iris blue and jade mixed into a pastel palette of jonquil yellow, cherry blossom and brushstrokes of grey. Black linear accents inspired by Yoshitaka Nakao’s strongly outlined figurative prints bring balance and discipline to the whole, giving definition to dress straps and necklines, and taking the form of stark bandeau tops that feel spare and restrained rather than skimpy.
As evening falls, the tight micro-pleats relax and soften, opening up into a series of asymmetric layered gowns in silk organza, light as air, before reaching full bloom in a pair of cascading ruffled organza ball skirts. Although the effect is that of control loosening, the level of workmanship required only increases in intensity. Defying the natural properties of the material, the atelier literally bends the organza to its will so as to create J. Mendel’s signature sense of lightness and movement.
For Spring 2016, an alluring tension between restraint and exuberance, between rigor and soft femininity, brings a new level of clarity to J. Mendel signatures. With the old-world expertise of the atelier always on show, a serene spirit of understated ease and elegance nonetheless prevails.
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