True to form, sass & bide designers Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton’s bowerbird approach to designing their Spring/Summer 2012 collection – dubbed ‘Seekerstate‘ – manages to bring together a great number of different silhouettes, materials, colours, patterns and textures without being overworked. To continue the metaphor, much like a bowerbird’s nest, the collection layers the soft undergrowth of cashmere, suede, cotton in watercolour polka dots and silk in dark floral prints, on top of loosely structured foundations built from neoprene, embellished metallics, beaded embroidery, leather, denim and vinyl.
Nautical references appear in both colour and stripe to counter the continuous thread of a vibrant red, while a more subdued gold balances the sartorial bling of its vinyl counterpart. There are a couple of great outerwear pieces, including an asymmetrical leather jacket and a boldly structured military coat with enlarged – again asymmetrical – leather lapels and sleeves. A lot of pieces retain their straight-off-the-runway impact, including an enlarged diamond fishnet top over a gathered black-and-gold paperbag mini, as well as the collection’s strongly coloured and constructed accessories. ‘Tis a fine nest indeed, unlike this bowerbird metaphor.
View Photos Via Harpers Bazaar
Title Image by Stuart Wilson via Getty
