DELPOZO AW15’16 READY-TO-WEAR NEW YORK FASHION WEEK

The human experience is filled with drama and richness—and why shouldn’t there be clothes to match? Season after season since he was tapped to relaunch the Spanish house of Delpozo in 2012, designer Josep Font seems to wordlessly ask that question, and in response turn out fantastical prêt-à-couture creations that draw a buzzing mix of editors, bloggers, and buyers to his shows. Backstage today, Font cited a pair of inspirations: the “sinister,” vibrant paintings of Rhys Lee, and Andrey Remnev’s contemporary reimaginings of Pre-Raphaelite works. Art is a perennial source of inspiration for Font, and there was certainly something painterly about his palette of blush, green, and Yves Klein blue (a very cool fluorescent yellow, perhaps less so).

Font’s outerwear here was one of his biggest coups, like a powder blue coat with a patchwork of abstract leather birds and leaves. And it wouldn’t truly be a Delpozo outing without those balloon sleeves, seen on blouses and a grass green coat, looking like they might at any moment burst at their seams—it’s a feeling of control that marks many of Font’s designs.



But for all that structure there was a lot of softness, too, both in spirit and in form: the column gowns, for instance, including one in scarlet bobbinet with a cape detail. Knits were strong, too; Font’s pullovers came with creeping crocheted blooms that were a nice, crafty reminder of a human hand in his meticulous and often textureless designs. The grouping in velvet was almost a shock amidst a sea of sculptural. After all, it’s been Delpozo and a handful of other labels (Vika Gazinskaya, et al.) who have lately reignited a taste for richly constructed, high-volume clothes that de-emphasize the body and emphasize their own couture-like presence. And here Font turned out a bewitchingly eccentric example of that. His crimson gown would be a welcome sight on the Oscars’ red carpet come Sunday.