How to keep your head when all around are losing theirs to the grungy/awkward/ironic cool of conceptual sweatshirts, skater pants, and supersize MA-1 jackets? That’s the question someone like David Koma must be asking himself right now, because where they see the street, he sees only sparkle and shine. Backstage at his Spring 2018 show, Koma laughed when the question came up. “I consider fashion as an art,” he said. “I explore that through my identity. And I always listen to my instincts—and what the David Koma girl wants and feels.”

This particular collection was inspired by athleticwear—not so different from Koma’s hoodie-loving contemporaries, then—but from that point on it was divergence all the way, with Koma mixing luxe materials with technical fabrics. He ran asymmetrically placed undulating ruffles across short dresses—he’d been looking at a frilled vintage Pierre Cardin piece he’d found in New York—as if the adornment was running a marathon around the body. He also paired cutaway sports bra tops with side-stripped, floor-sweeping track pants. Everything came in strong, bright team colors—cardinal red, electric blue—or his trademark graphic black and white.

While the mood might have been va-voom sexiness turned all the way up to Full Speed Ahead, there’s one thing that was for sure here: Koma has exemplary cutting and finishing skills—his clothes are impeccably made. That was evident in the way he molded black leather for the opening of the show, making it at once severe and sculptural (a riff on a Kerry Vesper artwork he has at home) and on the other, contrasting it with the cascading softness of the frills, or in the application of the “hours and hours” of beading that graced the closing looks. It’s also true, of course, that there are plenty of women in the world who want clothes that cover—or just about cover—every curve; they’d rather hang their heads in shame than have a hoodie covering them. And yet . . . what would have been nice to see here is a little more movement in the direction of the other side of the street, as it were, putting a counterintuitive impulse into the collection. By all means, keep cutting tight, but also occasionally cut loose.Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com/long-formal-dresses-online | http://www.marieaustralia.com/formal-dresses-shops-sydney