Let me backtrack and mention the things that I was conflicted about. Firstly, most prominently, KW mismatched the most un-mis-matchable hue in the world. She went right ahead and placed tangerine next to orange…
Karen Walker – L’Oreal Paris Runway 6
L’oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival 2011
I have always harboured mixed feelings about Karen Walker. While her collections don’t do too much for me, the occasional individual piece will make me bite my lip and wonder how much wiggle room I have in my account.
On top of this, I greatly admire her business prowess. I’m sure you are aware that she has jewellery and glasses lines, but you may or may not be aware that she also has a selection of Resene paints?
What got me squealing in the current Karen Walker collection at LMFF was the dabbling in ginge-friendly colour choices. For so long there has been this negative energy around us souless ones, but now that we’re swinging into fashion, there will be more available to us. This makes me squeak. The way that Karen Walker uses pinks and burnt umber in the autumn/winter season is really just so exciting.
Let me backtrack and mention the things that I was conflicted about. Firstly, most prominently, KW mismatched the most un-mis-matchable hue in the world. She went right ahead and placed tangerine next to orange. I use these two words carefully because although they may look like the same colour worn on two different people across the room, when you wear a cardigan of tangerine and trousers of orange, it is evident they are not the same colour. This is precisely what Walker did.
I mentioned before that I admire her business prowess. This girl is daring and is known for it. So although I can appreciate entirely her bravery at tackling this fashion no-no, it really didn’t work for me. It just made me cringe, which was hard to do in what I was wearing at the time.
The other really baffling outfit looked like she had taken inspiration from 1950s synchronised swimming and turned it into some sort of raincoat. Every atom of me wanted to like it but it was sort of, awkward. I loved the pattern and colour couplings but the ruffles were just so unflattering and ill-placed.
I did really like KW’s use of bird patterns and the way she uses them is sort of pajama-esque. However, it is clear to me that she hasn’t seen Portlandia’s "Put A Bird On It". The tides are turning on this sort of indie kid semiotic so these sorts of kitschy-cute patterns will have a definite and soon to be arriving used by date. By at your own peril!
Conclusion: Mixed. Maybe it will grow on me. Often the KW collections do.
By Lucy Telford, 27 March 2011.
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