This season, a dark and twisted undercurrent ran through the SS14 collections. From corrupt church girls, bodies hanging from the ceiling and psychotic performers, designers were exercising their attraction to the dark side. Then there was the excess of black. More than just a colour, black has become a cultural and social meaning formed through history. In religion, before the words “let there be light,” had been muttered all was black and in science, before the Big Bang, the situation was pretty similar. Before we'd even got our hands on it, its symbolism had been set. In darkness there is no hope and in black, nothing thrives.
Season after season, there is a continued fascination with the cult. In 1981, Yohji Yamamoto descended on Paris and before long, the group of women who draped themselves in his and the Comme des Garçons garments became known as 'the crows'. Today, with those among the likes of Rick Owens, Gareth Pugh and Ann Demeulemeester at the forefront of cult's curation, it's more alive than ever. Advertising is unattractive, aesthetic becomes religion and people are so enamoured by the designer's dark sensibilities that they become followers rather than buyers.
To coincide with our dark arts takeover, we pay homage to these dark collections and re-imagine them in illustrated horror storyboards.
