IT all started with a piece of paper. And on it, black scribbles and one very colourful scribble. Below them “SS15″ – and that is, no joking, quite literally how Marques’ Almeida created their new collection. Or so it seemed when, looking up at their inspiration board pre-show, everything had so clearly navigated itself to come together.
Pre-show and this Central Saint Martins-trained pair, Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida, had spoken of how they were streamlining and focusing a bit more – their inspiration board the most sparse it’s ever been, they confessed. Last season they let rip – and sewed a very profitable seed, everyone has been wearing their frayed denim wares all fashion week long – and now it was time to go dark, introverted and so they used a lot of black for the first time.
We saw it among their signature denim, which this time was all about turn-ups, massive ones at that – on jeans and jackets; and we saw it on asymmetric layered dresses cut with ruffles; trailing tassels anchored by Swarovski gems; their signature halter-neck styles accompanied by new cape shapes.
But elsewhere there were clog mules of every colour , lighter denim offerings as well as the introduction of linen. It was still them through and through but quite rightly developed.
They noted they’d left the Nineties behind but kept their grunge spirit. It looks like they’ve found it in the millennium, which is no bad thing at all. And we’re bound to see everyone wearing it next season again.