This collection, rich-hued and flecked with gold, was born — of all places — in a monastery. Roksanda Ilincic said she drew inspiration from the priests’ robes, frescoes, and the meditative quiet of the holy spaces in her native Serbia.
The designer showed under the late summer sunshine in a courtyard at the Barbican, and tapped the British soprano Isabelle Peters, giving the show another layer of calm and sense of communion.
As always, there was a big focus on color and volume. The art-loving designer dipped into her paint pots, daubing boxy jackets and long dresses with shades of highlighter green and orange; and dipping a silk backless gown, and even a tailored suit, in a shade of rose-tinged champagne.
Other dresses, some of them with twist, knot or pleat details, were awash in shades such as cobalt and deep purple while the pleated papery gown that closed the show was a flash of lavender.
Ilincic took the gold threads of Orthodox priests’ robes and spun them into delicate bits of gold wire that twisted around the back of a long, flowing silk dresses in shades of champagne or raspberry pink.
Short silvery skirts, which looked as if they were made from piles of sparkly fringe, also nodded to those monastic metallic threads.
Frescoes inspired the patterns, textures and prints, which included bright brushstrokes on a suit and abstract white dots on a green silk skirt and top. The gentle, curving female figure on the front of another dress didn’t come from the monastery — naturally — but straight from Roksanda’s imagination.