By virtue of the baseline maximalist nature of their digital prints, you'd never classify Bruno Basso and Christopher Brooke's work as minimal. But today's collection had a real kind of serenity. Brooke stripped silhouettes of nearly every bit of excess detail. Nearly. The pin-sharp tailored lines of coats were softened here and there into a puffed shoulder or the languid elegance of a draped shawl lapel. Even as the shape loosened up into more feminine jersey dresses and turtlenecks tucked into long skirts, there was still a precision.
Aside from those long jackets and matching trousers, and a turtlenecked gown with a retro seventies clunk, the collection had an immediate commercial appeal. Within the intimate setting of the Portico Rooms, you could see how it would wow the kind of ladies who actually spend money on expensive clothes.
That brings us to the beautiful prints, which in the simplest terms were inspired by camouflage. The best of them had a depth you could absolutely get lost in. Basso, the printmaking half of the duo, took his cues from the avian world, the painter Gerhard Richter, and even the beauty of an ancient disintegrating wall. The show notes also invoked Veruschka's work with makeup artist Holger Trülzsch in the book Trans-figurations, where she's made up to blend into old doors and moss, and quoted Susan Sontag's intro about the conflicting desires of wanting to be seen but also to hide and blend in. It seems pretentious at first, but then you realize that's exactly what you should get from great fashion. Here you found some options to fit the bill.
