Fashion Designer: Sophia Messina
The time has come where all fashion enthusiasts hover over their laptops looking through desinger after designer on style.com; this can only mean one thing, the 2012 Fall pre collections are out. Whilst the majority of it is all if for women, men yet again have drawn the short straw. Feeling compleltey subdued about this, I took to re-searching what final year students where doing and that is where I came across a collection so reflective, from the concept behind it to the final outcome.
Inspired by her grandfathers hardship during the 2nd world war, Sophia Messina creates an amazing collection that pays homage, as well as giving a modern twist, to such a drastic point of the turning of the world. ‘Barbarossa’ was formed. Named after the Military Operation her grandfather was a part of, and inspired by the measures the soliders had to go through to keep warm, this colloection speaks volumes.
“Battling with the harsh snowy terrain, the soldiers begun turning to raw and existing materials to improve their uniforms. Insulating and protecting themselves with what they could against the cold. This saw many soldiers filling the linings of their jackets with newspapers, wrapping their blankets like shawls, layering garments and building straw shoes to elevate their frostbitten feet from the snowy terrain. Wrapping their white shirts over their great coats like ghosts to camouflage themselves, all in attempt to stay warm.”
Adapted to more recent times, Messina’s collection is not only easy to wear but carries great shapes that are so well thought-out for practicality without losing the fact that it is also very fashion forward. An aspect that helps this is the woven shoes. Adding the shoes to these outfits evokes a sense of the ‘home-made’, ‘D.Y.I’ feel that the soldiers had to undergo in order to survive resulting in creating a new shoe form.
With clever use of fabrics, Messina plays with the contradiction of shape and texture which assists the collection by adding the modern twist. Although I usually have a hard time accepting a whole collection in dark tones, colour in any form that isn’t organic (i.e. woven shoes) would have taken away from the shapes and the mood of the whole collection. Also, I automatically fall in love with collections that have this much layering, the more layering, the more clothes.
Comfortable and easy to wear, the ‘Barbarossa’ collection goes far beyond ‘Hobo-Chic’. Messina questions the true man.
“Discovering and representing a new generation of masculinity that questions
the conventional way of dressing powerfully as a man, discovering new shapes
through accidental layering and compositions is fundamental to the collection.”
I couldn’t agree more. A phenomenal collection that needs to shared and what perfect timing to get inspired by this than during cold January. My personal favourites are the triple toned fur coat, hairy trousers and accessories; just the right amount of androgyny, style and practicality for me.
by Andrew Demetry
