Nevertheless, Aviation is where it startedfrom uniforms and Pan Am to modern military aviation, Marcus Wainwright said backstage after his Rag and Bone show achieved liftoff at New York Fashion Week.
Wainwright and co-designer David Neville mined the romance of flight, turn-of-the-century menswear, and August Sanders taxonomic photography to come out with a mod, surprisingly sexy autumn winter 2013 collection.
That meant everything from utility-style trousers with contrasting knee patches to a duck-egg-blue leather suit. In Wainwright and Nevilles hands, menswear-inspired tailoring looked right in place alongside retro-futuristic mini-dresses and oversized houndstooth jumpers. Models wore the latter mini-dress style over suspender pantyhose, exposing a sliver of skin.
Some of the looks even felt a little Chanel-esque, as with the opening ensemble of quilted leather trousers with a boucle jacket. But the use of colour was all Ragflashes of safety orange, magenta, lemon yellow and olive green were perfectly placed to lift the eye out of the heavy winter mindset. And those shoes! Blue and yellow ponyskin loafers may not be the most practical footwear for the season, but sometimes, impractical and improbable is exactly what it takes to set fashion hearts thumping.
