The Artist's Way

At Argentina's Fashion Week, our excitement was highest (on or off schedule) for Martin Churba and his label Tramando, which presented an s/s '08 collection entitled Tropic. Churba was inspired by the art nouveau chairs of sculptor and multimedia artist Pablo Reinoso. Like Reinoso, Churba found wood and nature to be the ideal materials with which to develop his trademark textile experiments and innovations.

The on-schedule catwalk shows started with designer Pablo Ramirez, who created revisions of traditional Argentinean pieces such as ponchos and school uniforms. He also suggested several new variations on the little black dress, in satin, linen, and leather, incorporating transparencies, layering, different proportions, and contrasting shades of black on black. Nadine Zlotogora's starting point for her summer collection was geometric lines, which adorned girlish minidresses and masculine overalls. She toyed with constructive clothing details such as lining, buttonholes, and stitches that are usually hidden.

Camila Milessi and Emiliano Blanco are the designers behind independent label Kostüme. They showed a collection mixing Occidental '60s-pop-art references and Asian art-toy culture. The latter was best seen on dresses and t-shirts' silhouettes with the characteristic rounded shapes of Japanese Kokeshi dolls, while the former is present in Roy Lichtenstein-printed shirts. Vero Ivaldi's style is based on a modern approach to pattern making. After years of honing her craft, she showed Encounter with Magritte, which was based on the paintings of the Belgian artist René Magritte. The painter's 1953 piece Golconde is her main reference point for the reinterpretation of masculine pieces in soft, feminine materials.

Finally, Mariano Toledo closed the event with Futuroscope, a collection inspired by light effects and kaleidoscopic figures that have become his signature prints in s/s '08. The show was divided into six chromatic sections: lime, black-and-white, peacock blue, lilac, grey and silver, and a closing white dress with light bulbs. Responsible for creating Argentina's most creative leather pieces (which this time appeared in retro-futuristic designs and silver shades), Toledo has recently been tapped to create an accessories collection for local leather brand Maggio & Rossetto, bringing his work to a broader audience.

Apart from designer pieces, accessories is the most flourishing field in Argentinean design. Puro is a sneaker and bag brand created in 2004 by design duo Gabriel Pozner and María Itatí Montechiani. The two create retro-inspired pieces mixing tartans and tweeds, leather, and eclectic prints from animals to graffiti-like designs. Iotti was a boutique founded in Buenos Aires in 1930 by Lucila Iotti's grandfather; she grew up playing around with haute-couture pieces while her mother, a professional ice skater, inspired her style. Her latest creations include high-heeled shoes with resin adornments, strass-and-lace bows, and black and grey pieces with fluo heels. Rocío Aldunate is an artist and contemporary jewelry designer who started her career as a stylist creating her own pieces for fashion shows and photo shoots. She is obsessed with color and texture, and has designed a whole line of necklaces by pleating, folding, and draping textiles into different layers. But the ultimate jewelry brand is I Love Broken, by sisters Silvana and Laura Grosso, who style one of the country's most successful bands, Babasónicos. Their pieces are mostly silver-based pendants, inspired by cities like Los Angeles, American sitcoms, and pop culture.
-M. Noel Falken

Photos:
Tramando s/s '08
Mariano Toledo s/s '08
Kostüme s/s '08
Puro
Iotti
I Love Broken