Seasons come and go, but they’re never the same. No matter, it’s best to prepare for them and get used to them quickly. But it’s not just the seasons that are changing, the earth’s climate is also changing, and global warming is making itself felt more and more. We have to react, of course, but above all we have to adapt.
Inspired by climate change and global warming, Xuan Thu Nguyen has created a Winter 2010-2011 collection of contrasts in sweltering heat, with two dominant colors: white and gray. White recalls the softness of snow, icy blue the hardness of ice, while frosted silver is present throughout the collection.
The Vietnamese-born Dutch designer worked extensively on volumes, creating new shapes for pantsuits. The cuts are structured with oversized shoulders, the waist is marked and the jacket is worn next to the skin. The skirt is reinvented in a ball skirt of the most virginal whiteness. The neckline is delicately V-shaped in the back, for a deep purple dress that awakens the collection’s color palette.
The designer’s penchant for fabric origami can be seen on several silhouettes, as she folds, unfolds, knots and reknots fabrics. Ornaments abound, like the stalactite-like crystal drops covering the top of an extremely slit silver dress. Bows also feature prominently, covering the bottom of a short empire dress or delicately knotting a blouse.
Xuan Thu Nguyen also emphasized the refinement of details. Natural details are superimposed, such as the small leaves on a gray strapless dress with a generous décolleté and a layered millefeuille skirt. The same millefeuille is found on a long version of the strapless dress in sandy tones, with no overlay. Pants are adorned with embroidery resembling frozen flowers, while the top of a dress is multicolored.
And to better adapt to a changing climate, the designer favors natural materials such as linen fur and muslin.
This year, the hair accessories are spectacular: low ponytails embellished with headbands proudly bearing large snowballs with snowstorms inside and giant bows, colored or not. Almost a micro-climate in itself, reminiscent of childhood snowballs.
Two silhouettes stand out in this collection: the little fur jacket, deeply natural but with a touch of chic, worn over a white skirt, and the fabulous gray dress, all embroidered flowers with a turquoise collar, a real exercise in origami style and incomparably light.
Xuan Thu Nguyen offers us a collection inspired by the climate and the mildness of winter weather, giving pride of place to her creativity, her taste for origami and the detail of embroidery and other ornaments. The Xuan Thu Nguyen woman looks resolutely to the future, freeing herself from the couture codes of the past to project herself clearly into the future, proof that elegance and originality can go hand in hand.
Marie-Odile Radom
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