Paris Fashion Week 2013: Damir Doma is one to watch
The spring-summer 2013 season at Paris Fashion Week, which kicked off Tuesday, is shaping up to be about new beginnings and newcomers.
Hedi Slimane, whose slim-line aesthetic dominated men’s fashion when he was the designer for Dior Homme from 2000 to 2007, will debut his first women’s collection as the new creative director for the venerable house of Saint Laurent, which he is designing between studios in Paris and Los Angeles. And Raf Simons, who also started out as a menswear designer, will be presenting his first RTW collection as creative director for Christian Dior, where he replaces the disgraced John Galliano, who was caught on a camera phone in February 2010 making drunken, anti-Semitic remarks that cost him his job and landed him in trouble with the law.
The week is also about newcomers like Damir Doma, who have built their businesses independently, outside of the luxury industry’s brand-as-star system, rather than working under long-dead designer names at old fashion houses like Dior or Saint Laurent.
The Croatian-born, Munich- and Berlin- educated Doma cut his teeth working with Belgian designers like Simons and Dirk Schonberger in the robustly creative Antwerp fashion scene.
And like Slimane and Simons, Doma started in menswear, launching his first collection in 2007, and making fans out of Lenny Kravitz, Bruce Springsteen and Robert Pattinson. A women’s line followed last year.
On Wednesday, Doma showed his spring-summer 2013 women’s collection at Ecole des Beaux Arts on the Left Bank.
The inspiration: Artist Max Ernst. Collage. Opposing textures and geometric planes.
The look: Edgy, utilitarian sophisticate. Tailored separates included a crinkled white silk jacket with an intriguing texture, worn with shorts. Oversize vests came in patchworks of leather and gabardine. Apron skirts and cropped wind breakers with sash belts. Silk tunics and palazzo pants softened the look. The color palette included black, white and surplus green infused with vibrant tones of turquoise, sapphire and sienna. Great strappy sandals with molded silver heels. He also debuted several styles of circular eyeglass frames in gold, platinum, graphite and horn, in collaboration with German eyewear brand Mykita, that will launch in the spring.
The verdict: Pull apart the layered looks and there were a lot of unique wearable pieces. Doma is one to watch.
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