Hermione de Paula’s A/W 09-10 range is based on her fascination with the online alter-egos of two friends who share a cyber friendship, and yet will never meet. The unconventional friends live in small town America, send each other peculiar images of animals, spiritual messages and other bizarre findings via social networking sites, and call themselves by whimsical names like ‘Wolfspirit’ and ‘Bear Paw’. These ambiguous characters are unnaturally reserved and yet unabashedly, madly eccentric.

The collection is made up of a colour palette influenced by fantasical paintings of animals, featuring deep nudes, vivid purples, electric blues, ochre oranges and mysterious black. De Paula’s signature softly contoured, feminine silhouette reappears for A/W 09-10, while crushed velvet, leather and mohair juxtaposed with glossy mesh,silk satin and georgette give the collection a mystic, primal tiwst.
 
To celebrate the launch of the collection, de Paula enlisted the directorial talents Zaiba Jabbar and punchy music of the Big Pink to create a short video that encapsulates the enigmatic mood of the collection.

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