Rodarte’s Spring collection was heads above the rest. The illusion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy created was that a a Phoenix rising from the ashes. They were inspired by the singed land in California due to fires and imagined a woman in the midst of ruin pulling herself together and dressing herself in rags.
How did they accomplish this feat? Simple, by taking luxe materials and basically destroying and shredding them. Them, putting them back together using clever draping techniques and creating a hodge podge effect in which “they aged, painted, burned, shredded, sandpapered, and otherwise destroyed all of the materials—including grungy scraps of plaid, plastic, cheesecloth, wool cobweb, crystals, macramé, leather, and more—until they bore only traces of what they had been originally.” (style.com) The result, one fierce collection. Where Marc Jacobs aim was to steer clear of studs, Rodarte embraced them and pushed the limits of the studded grunge look to new heights.
