This collection from Kym Ellery was, interestingly, inspired by the ancient Athenian philosopher of happiness, Epicurus. Said the designer: “I was really interested in the idea that his philosophy was to enjoy the finer things in life in general, but also that you only need three things to be happy: friendship, freedom, and thought. And working in this industry, I just thought that was a fascinating concept. Also, I read that his philosophy got misconstrued into luxury. So this is a starting point of the collection, and I wanted to contrast some simpler things with more excessive things. I liked this story that he started a commune outside of Athens, where they threw wild orgies: That inspired some of the pieces.”
Chain necklaces, link bracelets, and bronze earrings designed to resemble a breast were hints toward the Hellenic slap-and-tickle on Ellery’s radar, as were the piercing style fastenings on many of the garments. Long draped pastel dresses, cinchable with shoelace-thin vegan leather cord, were serene and stately. A black vegan-leather trench with scarlet belt buckles hinted again at excess. A fitted black dress lined with monochrome ostrich feather and a print of an extraordinarily long-billed duck of a species Ellery could not identify were avian asides. A white, chevron-shaved off-the-shoulder top, a silk patchwork dress in diagonal neutral stripes, and the dresses and shoes dyed in two ranges of four appealing stripes of color were all garments you could imagine generating happiness.
Under questioning, Ellery conceded that the reason one of her commercial collection T-shirts has a map of Antarctica on it is that her great-great-grandfather was the famous explorer Ernest Shackleton. Wow! As well as being stranded near the South Pole in pack ice and nearly perishing on the escape, Shackleton is famous for purportedly placing this marvelous ad in theLondon Times: “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful…”
At the end of Fashion Month, you can, like, relate.
