Natalia Alaverdian is mash-up crazy, a hyper-promiscuous reference-wrangler. So this is a little bit '70s, while that's a little bit '80s. She's thinking Guy Bourdin, she's thinking Star Wars, she's thinking Pokémon. Such a Barthesian overload of signs and signifiers is a deeply 21st-century proclivity, and the danger is that without an overarching design behind it, the clothes this gadfly imperative spawns will end up just busy, noisy, empty stuff—the wearable equivalent of a carelessly curated Instagram feed. But The Force is strong in this one. Although her lawyers might be getting busy sometime soon. Because the "angry squirrel" icon she had a graphic designer rustle up as her animal cipher of the season does have an extremely Pokémon-ish aspect.
Ruffle, bias, asymmetry, swoop, volume, and texture (in the waffle, the fake fur, and the fake astrakhan she favors) are all corralled into a street-style sweet spot of a collection. A Chewbacca-shaggy fake-fur overcoat with a squirrel back panel; a marvelous armless oversize gingham dress with a chest plate of ruffle; and a rose-hipped waffled cream investment vestment were the pieces I most wanted to tweet. Attention seeker's catnip and really good fun.
