Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida, who have always preferred showing in East London, decided to shake things up this season and go to the center of town in Covent Garden with a quirky show that took place at St. Paul’s Church.
The pair got stuck into history, however.
“There’s 17th century, 18th century, Baroque influences [and Dutch paintings],” Marques said at the entrance of the church, taking in the scorchingly hot English sunshine with Almeida.
The collection was titled “Historically Informed, Culturally Subverted” with eccentric Victorian jackets in bubblegum pink, blue wash denim and even a biker leather jacket version; corseted bodice tops with visible boning outlines; floral baby-doll dresses, and undone white shirts with ruffles that could only be worn by a sailor or tortured Victorian artist.
There were too many ideas flying over the place at once — think of it as Marques Almeida’s “Eras” tour of history.
“We really wanted to dig deeper into [history] and that comes with British training [as designers], but once you dig deep into it, you learn about it and then you f–k it up,” Marques said.
Each piece had a sign of age with it — nothing was pristine or brand new: dresses were frayed, skirts wrinkled and leather bags grained.
They may have headed to the center of town for a new direction, but it’s still early days to predict where the second coming of Marques Almeida will lead.
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