The Genius of Christopher Kane: Setting Trends, Kicking Ass, and Bringing Copycats Out of the Woodworks

I’d like to be patriotic and firmly claim that American designers this season and last absolutely wowed me with their forward-thinking designs and their abilities to rise above seasonal trends. But I’d be lying.

The truth is, some of the most standout designers during the month-long fashion week shows are often found in London, which is precisely where many a snobby, stiff critic refuses to look. As admirers of fashion as an art, we can appreciate other designers like Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons for their abilities to sidestep trends, and set them instead. (Hello: bold stripes, couture-skirts-meet-Tshirts, bananas, etc). But these designers are backed by large companies with even larger stakes in the labels (LVMH and Onward Holdings Company, respectively). There is an expectation to perform, to meet standards, to progress. And while no designer wants to disappoint, designers backed my so much money have specific clients to please, with whom they must maintain relationships. Yes; Prada’s Spring 2012 collection of periwinkle blues, browns and black was a breath of fresh air against a sea of neon hues seen at NYFW.

But then we must remember: that ubiquitous sea of acid hues and highlighter colors we saw saturate the runways for Spring 2012? Christopher Kane did that last year. He set a trend followed a year later by seemingly half of the designers at New York Fashion Week. And it was evident. But reinvention and progression comes with artistic freedom. Unlike some of Kane’s “superiors,” he and his sister Tammy maintain complete ownership of the label. And so, every season, Kane and his sister consistently manage to wow fashion editors and admirers alike with innovate designs that may garner something slowly fading in fashion: awe.

For Fall 2011, Kane  featured extremely wearable dresses complete with plastic straps filled with encapsulated liquid. Clutches of the same variety were tucked under arms and have since shown up on countless wish lists in magazines and fashion blogs.  Jaws dropped, and magazine editors flocked to his frocks for their fall fashion editorials.

This season, Kane approached Spring with a fresh, if not incisive take on florals and pastels. Florals for spring, new? Well, yes…when Christopher Kane’s strategic genius is at work. His dresses were cut in sharp, non-flowing silhouettes, featuring 3-dimensional flowers appearing almost as if they were plucked and pressed between wax paper. The fabric surrounding these sharp florals was a blend of 70 percent aluminum organza; it didn’t move much, and it wasn’t supposed to. The rigidity of his origami-folded, crisp white shirts were tucked into pastel brocades. The look was reminiscent of the expensive couch you were told never to sit on, no matter how tempting, and in this case, the thick brocades were sliced with precision at architectural angles; they were not alluring, but intimidating in a way fashion should be at times. There was nothing soft about Christopher Kane’s florals, nothing nostalgic about his otherwise vintage prints, and paired with stark white athletic sandals, even the collection’s base shunned romanticism.

…And the fashion world fell to its knees. Tim Blanks of Style.com called him a “maverick mind who finds beauty where others don’t even begin to look,” and the perpetually bored Cathy Horyn also sings his praises. Am I done kissing his ass? I guess, for now…until American designers copy his color palette/cuts/silouettes again next season.

There may be other designers whose looks are rack-ready and easily imitated, but I doubt you will see a knockoff of one of Kane’s pieces on a rack at Forever 21. He’s too precise. He knows what he’s doing.

see what I mean?

image credits in order of appearance: christopher kane spring 2011, origami photo, christopher kane fall 2011 , Spring 2012 images

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