New Zealand fashion queen Karen Walker unveiled her latest collection, Perfect Day, at New York Fashion Week this week.
While you were tucked up in bed dreaming on Tuesday night, designer Karen Walker was showing her latest collection, Perfect Day, in New York. This season the designer and her team have found inspiration in the work of photographer William Eggleston, especially his ability to find beauty in the ordinary
and mundane.
"We love the light, the dreamlike quality, the use of vivid, intense, confident colour, the large expanses of colour, the optimism, but all of this with disturbing undertones," Walker explained before leaving for New York last week. This contrast between the pretty and the dark has long informed Walker's work, so it's unsurprising that she is now looking to Eggleston's work, which has been described in The New Yorker as having "colour that hits you in the face and leaves you confused and happy".
"We like the fact he takes ordinary things and makes them extraordinary: old tyres, discarded air-conditioners, vending machines, empty Coca-Cola bottles, street signs. He has a unique ability to find beauty, and striking displays of colour, in ordinary scenes."
These ideas have been translated into an explosion of print and colour; almost a rejection of the minimalism prevalent throughout fashion right now.
"Print has always been an important part of the Karen Walker handwriting and the last few seasons we've laid pattern upon pattern to create strong pattern blocking - this continues here at a whole new level," says Walker. "We've also made sure that our colours are super vivid in a way that hopefully captures Eggleston's approach to colour." That means standout shades of orange, marigold, yellow and blue, teamed with more muted shades.
The collection also sees the mundane become extraordinary, like Eggleston's subjects: curtain type florals on silk crepe de chine, prints of everyday objects - clothes pegs, sparrows, washing - on luxe fabrics, the use of technical fabrics like Tyvek and parka nylon and metal badging inspired by Eggleston's frequent capturing of cars. There is also an all-over floral print of hydrangeas by another photographer that Walker admires (and often works with), Derek Henderson.
This morning's New York Fashion Week show also marked the debut of an exciting footwear collaboration with Beau Coops designer Carrie Cooper - the result of a long-standing wish to work with each other.
"We've known Carrie for about 10 years, and we've always talked about working together. This season it's finally happened with us being able to collaborate on a couple of styles," says Walker. The results are a bold heel in tan and black, with solid wooden sole and hessian-type detailing; a unique take on the classic pump as well as a slip-on style. The shoes continue the collection's feeling of unexpected beauty. "The brief was to look at Eggleston's work, specifically his photographs of the interiors of Cadillacs, and to use these car interiors to come up with something that felt like a true mix of Karen Walker and Beau Coops' style."
Walker's popular collaborations with British shoe brand Pointer, which have previously included a boat shoe and this season's suede loafers, continues for a third season. This time around they have collaborated on a slightly built-up, skinny loafer with bright tassel detailing - perfect for those whose perfect day involves flat shoes rather than killer heels.
So what would Walker's perfect day involve? Like the collection, it combines the beautiful and the ordinary.
"Sun, the sound of the sea, playing with [daughter] Valentina in the sand under a palm tree, dreaming up ideas."
