Thomas Tait describes his feminine vision for spring/summer 16 as “all elbows and knees,” but if you’re expecting a gawky nerd, think again. The refined collection of silky shirts and dresses, patent patched and portholed denim and perfectly cut leather presents a plethora of Tait staples, but his ideas are consolidated and more covetable than ever.
The devil really is in the detail, as silk garments are punctuated by small embroidered circles with motifs that could be borrowed from the ancient Aztecs or a futuristic circuit board, and denim has patent leather-edged cut outs with metal rings buckled at four points like a cross hair. “There was a kind of bondage-y element,” Tait told us backstage, “but I’m not really into bondage,” he admits. “I don’t actually know anything about it, but I really enjoy sort of naively peeking at it”.
Tait says he has “a general interest in making things where you can’t necessarily tell what it is from a certain physical distance.” “You know when you get really close to someone you don’t know to look at something, and you realize you’re a bit too close?” he asks, explaining that the designs aim to engineer an “awkward closeness,” an effect he recreated for the show: “I wanted the runway to be a little bit narrow, to bring people together, whether they like it or not!” he joked.
Read more i-D fashion month coverage here.
Credits
Text Charlotte Gush
Photography Jason Lloyd Evans