This season Jayne Pierson showed her Spring Summer 2019 Collection ‘Because de Change’ as part of the British Fashion Council’s London Fashion Week at the Conde Nast College of Fashion and Design. Known for her art driven collections, for SS19, Pierson literally took the canvas to the body and let the art do the talking.
As with every season, this runway show told a story, award winning designer Pierson used a diverse cast of models to tell and conceptualise the story of the contemporary woman who refuses to conform to societies outdated expectation. Pierson seeks to redefine what it means to be a woman who has her own aspirations and what it means to fulfil them.
The woman who wears Jayne Pierson is complicated, just like the designer herself. Her stream of consciousness is sublimated with her seemingly random set of doodles and scribbles on her garments but these actually seek to convey her most inner self. Her deepest thoughts and feelings are displayed and valued as contemporary art. She wears these garments as an armour to empower and celebrate herself, ourselves and our sublime differences.
Because de Change explores the recent criminalisation of hate crimes based on sexuality, disability, race, religion and gender and serves as a platform to talk more widely about consent, harassment, hate crime and the abuses of privacy and trust. Digital prints for SS19 are historic but surprisingly topical looking at very current and political subject matter such as up-skirting, religious iconography, motherhood, the gender pay gap, and size-ism.
Pierson is known for pushing the boundaries and taking conversation into her collections, as a lot of designers are now doing. This season we’ve seen Teatum Jones take their round table discussion to the mainstream accompanied by a presentation for SS19 with similar topics up for discussion. More and more designers are using their roles to bring the discussion to #MeToo, #TimesUp or discrimination and it’s becoming more widely accepted that this is now just a part of the fashion industry.
The Because de Change Collection is inspired by organic shapes created with perfect symmetry and balance. The silhouettes in this collection are crafted in the spirit of luxury and pay homage to re-appropriation and the cultural process of reclaiming artefacts. Luxury takes on a brutal harmony, exploring and reabsorbing subcultural styles and commodification.
Jayne Pierson creates directional, luxury womenswear that redefines the female form in empowering and uncompromising garments in leather pleating, luxe woven fabrics, future print, silks and draped leathers. Juxtaposing innovative material directions with avant-garde details inspired by a warped sense of history and intangible glitches in space and time, where historical references get confused and hybrids emerge, the collection encompasses high-end details and signature premium finishes. Because de Change SS19 integrates hand-painted leathers with engineered historic digital prints and woven painted fabrics. Delicate hand embroidered tulle, mesh and lace, silk jersey and lace lingerie contrast with structured architectural silhouettes. Colours are bright yellow, teal blue, lamb nappas and a pop of primary red leathers.
More over, Pierson bucks the fashion industry norm when it comes to models and puts together a diverse cast every season – and that’s what was on everyone’s lips as the vestibule emptied out after this show.
Pixie