Giles AW15

The Victorians hold less interest for me than what came before. Regency, or even Baroque, is much more my cup of tea. Not only did they throw a prudish spanner in the works and set gender equality back aeons but their version of lace and modesty was just too fussy, too contrived. It's all embroidered velvets in garish shades and poor proportions.

Yet reinventions of Victorian fashion, like that at Giles AW15, hold boundless appeal to me. A little bit Lestat, a little kinky and wonderfully dark. I mean, the leather frock coat? I could wear that all day, every day and never get bored or love it less. High lace collars with mini-skirts. Waists falling at more natural points. Menswear tailoring for female garments. Making being very much covered up into something overtly, palpably sexy - taking sensibilities of that period into the hands of an empowered, assured woman of ours. Theatrical explosions of ruffles and bows. Vampy black lips and little else in the way of make-up.

The success here is in the re-imagining. The heart of the garments, and even their purposeful containment of the body, remains the same but the way it is expressed and how it is interpreted is different. The woman who wears Giles is choosing to leave more to the imagination but she is a bit of a minx, she winks at us. She knows what she is doing rather than being forced to conform to standards of the time. And she has a flair for the dramatic - you won't miss her when she arrives at the party.

It's enough to make a wanna-goth swoon.

(Images via vogue.co,uk by Indigital)

P.S. It's great to see Andreja Pejic stomping the runway once more x

Liked this post? Want more?

Follow me here using google friend connect or bloglovin.

Or follow me on tumblr - twitter - facebook.