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Press notes are a funny beast. Pitch them right and they'll illuminate a collection in a way a post-show interview with a designer - shell shocked, sleep-deprived and stressed to high heaven - could never. Too often, however, they resemble a Google Translation gone awry, leaving an audience scratching their heads and wondering exactly where the process of converting inspiration to garment fell down.
There was a little bit of that sinking feeling at Jean-Pierre Braganza this season. Witness a collection of his trademark print-dissected dresses, chopped-up tailoring and slinky draped jersey. Inspired by a trip to Cornwall you say? 'Putting ideas about clothes into words should be left up to writers', Braganza says. Then launches into diatribe about Mies Van Der Rohe, H. R. Giger and industrial rock. Devon knows how they make that lot stick together. Maybe it was Cornwall circa 1984 - both the Orwellian dystopia, and the actual year looking at the hefty shoulderline of some of Braganza's long-line jackets.
Some of it was nice: the monochrome prints were strong, maybe too strong at a time when an eye-popping print and a bit of cunning drape are an easy get-out to hide a lack of fresh ideas. Indeed, drape and tailoring were key, according to Braganza's always-copious press notes. But aren't they the building-blocks of fashion as a whole? Nothing new there. In fact, there was nothing new in this collection, an array of souped-up high-street dresses flecked with print, elongated tailoring, and a speckling of pastel hues.
Braganza evidently has a problem with length. His skirts were often far, far too short. His trousers were so long they occasionally tucked under the shoes - themselves far too high, clodhoppers on a towering platform (does anything look more passe than that). And, like the shownotes, there was far too much 'stuff' in this collection. A sharp edit would have benefited both the designer and his audience. Then again, perhaps I'm guilty of a verbose moment or two, too. Hence, let's summarise this collection in a single word. Okay.
