Dion Lee has just made his runway debut at London Fashion Week with a pretty spectacular Spring Summer 2013 collection whose name I’m not yet aware of but whose presence will be felt long after the lights go down at one of London’s favourite lofty fashion haunts, The Dairy. UPDATE: The show’s line sheets featured the words ‘Transit, Transient, Transition, Transport‘ and was concerned with – you guessed it – travel and geothermal mapping of the human body abstracted into print and technique.
Lee made his critically acclaimed international debut earlier this year with ‘Sequence Breathing‘, a collection of fifteen breathtaking garments that explored the theme of breathing and the movement of air through his signature use of draping, tailoring and how-does-he-do-it construction to wonderful effect (an effect that may or may not have been fully registered by Alexander Wang in his Spring ’13 show). That show was styled by Vogue Australia’s fashion director, Christine Centenera, who also consulted on today’s collection, and featured shoes by budding cobbler Kanye West.
From the twenty-five looks presented today however, it becomes apparent that Lee’s much-lamented decision to pull of out this years MBFWA was entirely worth it.
Styled by Russh’s fashion director Gillian Wilkins, Lee’s SS ’13 collection picked up on a lot of the ideas explored in the his Resort 2013 collection, which featured intricately sliced neoprene and high-visibility textiles that provided his sharp tailoring with an altogether new dimension, especially when worn by God’s gift to limb-fetishists, Karlie Kloss.
The show opened with a series of white leather and sheer separates that appeared to riff on an athletic vibe; with tailored separates, some killer jackets and a sheer panelled and cuffed top previously worn by Centenera the standout pieces. The favoured colour of antipodean expatriates in fashion – a bold neon tangerine orange – broke up the show’s white wash techno futurism before the colour-way transitioned into a series of neutral and lilac dresses that recalled Lee’s earlier palette and experimentation with pleating and drapery in SS11’s Composure collection.
The extricate excision of Resort ’13 then took on an entirely new dimension with sculptured neoprene exoskeletal peplums that flared outward at the hip on both dresses and jackets, before a succession of black and navy dresses skirted the edges of demure territory but veered clear of dull thanks to Lee’s signature cutaway quirk, twisted spines and sculptural detailing.Early word of mouth reviews from intellectuel engagé Stephanie LaCava, Katie Grand from LOVE and industry blogger Imran Ahmed of BoF have proven largely positive, with each praising the designer’s ability to hone in on his design signatures. We’ll keep you updated as full reviews roll in later today. Also of note, ANTM alum Montana Cox, Amanda Ware and fellow Australian stunner Jemma Baines and Sophie Hirsch also walked for Lee.
UPDATE: Industry bible Style.com have placed Lee’s collection on their homepage, heralding a bright future for the ‘sci-fi thriller.’ Vogue.com also gave a good wrap, commending Lee on successfully “experimenting further with what he started in his assured and polished resort collection.”
Title image from Dion Lee’s Facebook.
