Turning bad taste into good taste is something of a specialty for Christopher Kane. So when it came to his Spring/Summer 2014 collection, it was only appropriate that the designer would deal with the flower complex that’s hit the shows this season. After all, before everyone in fashion decided floral prints were the best thing ever, most of them were considered pretty hideous and left for outdoor tablecloth material. Ever the fashion coroner, Kane dissected and examined the flower motif and presented his results in an intelligent collection, which turned the floral print into an object of science rather than an embellishment.
On a mirror catwalk in a wooden two-story building in St. John Street, Kane showed scientific botanical images featured in laser cut-outs on tops and skirts, and in a print on a jumper (which, come spring, will be any self-respecting street style photography victim’s prime prey), while other jumpers were simply – and rather clinically – labelled ‘FLOWER’ and ‘PETAL’. (Both, it should be noted, will result in pretty interesting constellations depending on the type of person who chooses to wear them.) Exploring the floral fixation in less pragmatic measures, Kane drew on the contours of petals in drop-shaped cut-outs outlined with iridescent metallics, and in the magnified textures of flowers in fuzzy, fluffy, foily rainbow dresses. For a collection that marked Kane’s first full season under the corporate big-gun wing of Kering, it was a by-the-book exercise in keeping all the corners of his market content. Pink Floyd’s child choir belted out the words, 'We don’t need no education' on the finale soundtrack, and the same could be said for Kane.
