Paris – The conjurer of culture clash, Manish Arora, showed yet another visual feast in Paris this week, with his autumn/winter 2011 collection.
The show, which started with a bearded magician producing the first model from fire, signified a mood in fashion at the moment that celebrates the feminine form with extreme stiff tailoring and silhouettes, and layers of strong colours and prints commanding attention.
The designer worked with artist Amrie Hoffstater to produce intricate, fractal digital prints cascading and undulating around the body, further enhanced with beading, fringing, sequins and appliqué.
As leading fashion print designers such as Mary Katrantzou and Manish Arora continue to explore digital print, we are seeing a move towards a decorative yet refined maximalism in fashion design. Textures, shapes and colours are wildly mixed, but with a sophistication beyond the elements of the Mix Mash design direction.