Marques’Almeida AW15

Initial reaction:

Girls that looked like they’d rolled out of bed and straight onto the pages of an archive Corinne Day shoot.

Rough around the edges:

The focus was on the fabrics, with Quality Street metallic leather, embroidered jacquard bustiers and of course, the brand’s much loved raw edged denim (“It has that realism that we look for, that lived-in feeling – like the pieces have been through something,” commented Marta Marques). The contradiction of refined and ragged was best seen in the all-red ensembles, where elegant chiffon top halves were juxtaposed with heavy, jaggedly cut bottoms. Models marched to the no-nonsense sounds of Bjork’s 1995 “Army of Me”, their hair hanging in perfectly undone grungy locks. 

90s nostalgia:

For inspiration, the duo buried themselves in old copies of magazines like cult style bible The Face, finding themselves returning to certain editorials. “We did a lot of research into the 90s, so there were a lot of shoots that we had as a reference we would go back to, including one by Corinne Day with Rosemary Ferguson in some metallic trousers,” explained Marques. “It was a lot about those shoots where you would have these really expensive garments with a wrecked sofa,” added Paulo Almeida. 

The soundtrack to Marques’Almeida AW15:

Liked this? Head here to check out all the Swarovski Collective designers’ AW15 show reports