Show Report
For all the ballsy black calf and chain-hung aggression, it seemed the Felder Felder sisters lost their way.
In their first on schedule show for Autumn/Winter 2010 , the Felder Felder twins Daniella and Annette decided, by and large, to stick to what they know, and what they know their customers want. Hence, the established codes of the Felder Felder label to date were well in place - leather, studs, dangling chains and more of those sell-out tufted fur coats hung with hardware. All the necessary accoutrements, indeed, to create their signature style: a cliched, tough-girl band-groupie look, albeit with an inflated designer pricetag. That is perhaps a little bit harsh, as the Felder Felder duo churn out this look with more conviction than most. Heavy leather jackets and cropped tuxedos were embellished with looped copper chains and clunking hunks of scrap metal: nuts, bolts and even hinges popped up as three-dimensional decoration across their short, dark silhouettes. It was almost inevitable that any clothes would play second fiddle to these, and the multi-gored skater skirts and leather-panelled wool jersey dresses looked fine, they simply couldn't be heard above the clanging metallic accessories. At the same time, running parallel to these heavy metal looks was a different story altogether: ruffles popping out at hip, rosettes swirling over breasts and frills plumping out the silhouette into feminine curves - culminating in a voluptuous blush-pink swimsuit Betty Page would have been proud to sport, albeit rerendered in glazed kidskin. For all the ballsy black calf and chain-hung aggression, it seemed the Felder Felder sisters lost their way - and their bottle - and instead decided to temper their vision with the exact opposite. This mix of masculine and feminine, the ra and the rarefied, has worked for these designers before, and occasionally this show hit the right note - one of those metal strewn leather jacket came with pleated peplum attached, and managed to look like a convincing marriage of opposites. It was, however, the exception to a rule. On the whole, the jarring of wholly opposed aesthetics felt unskilled, trite, and left this show feeling somehow unfinished.
