Mary Katrantzou is a talent whose eye zooms in on overlooked trifles, adding her psychedelic filters, distortions, and double-take visual puns to build up colorful collections. Here, she shows her hand for Pre-Fall – almost literally. The prints in her lookbook released today are, she says, “based on the patterns on the backs of playing cards, which probably no one notices very much, but which are so varied and amazing when you do start to study them.”
This repertoire of card tricks leads off in several directions. One is a thought line which included Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau’s surrealism, and thence to Elsa Schiaparelli, and her card-in-hand embroideries. Perhaps it was the '30s/'40s thread that made her imagine Hollywood femme fatales languidly playing cards in nightclubs. Pictures of the young Lauren Bacall on her pinboard triggered a glamorous set of retro-flavored crepe dresses in punchy petrol blue and salmon pink, accessorized with fox stoles. Style-wise, they’re Katrantzou’s winning hand for early fall cocktail and evening.
But this is a collection, dropped into stores from June to September, that must run the gamut of occasions and climates, stretching all the way from silk pajamas through breezy chiffon and long, tiered skirts, to tailoring and tweeds. Katrantzou worked traditional turn-of-the-century William Morris-type prints on autumnal tailoring, coats, and a long medieval-looking high-waisted evening dress, applying breezier, warm-weather versions to easy dresses and flounced maxi skirts – a winning suit for summer vacation purchases, right now.
