Declining to attach a narrative to his show, this season Michael van der Ham was instead enthralled by texture, texture, texture, “There wasn’t really one point of reference, there were lots of different bits and pieces but the starting point was textiles; looking at 60s, 50s and 40s fabrics, lots of hand embroidery, things like that. I try not to just copy them but remake them differently, exaggerate it and use lots of abstract shapes that don’t necessarily relate to anything,” explained the Dutch fashion magpie backstage.
Dresses came in flowing georgette, sleeves fell off the shoulder and van der Ham’s signature collage aesthetic came in with fabric applique’s hand-stitched on with metallic embroidery. Sheer, ruched, stiff, flowing and floral were layered in a mixed-media mélange of materials with unfinished edges that came together to form the elegant, pick ‘n’ mix rag doll’s that stalked the catwalk, “Once we got all the panels in, we started chopping them up into pieces and that’s how a dress came together. We’d leave a dress and work on another one and then come back to it.”
The sugary, feminine feat was topped off with chunky heels and graphic sunnies, designed by van der Ham himself, “It’s really exciting, I’m doing my own shoes this season and I knew that the dresses were going to be quite feminine and delicate looking so I wanted to contrast that with a really chunky shoe.”
Credits
Text Felicity Kinsella
Photography Piczo