I do like Delpozo. No, make that I LOVE Delpozo. There’s something about the clever colour combinations, the architectural silhouettes, even the quirky knitwear that impresses me way more than some of-the-moment designers who win praise just for sending models onto the runway in some of the most spectacularly ugly clothes around.
Not that Delpozo is easy to love. I’m not saying that if you walked down to Sainsbury’s wearing one of these creations you wouldn’t be laughed at or pitied by the community at large. But hey, that’s what being on-trend is all about (if everyone ‘got it’, fashion people wouldn’t be able to feel so smugly superior to everyone else, after all).
Delpozo collections, as imagined by designer Josep Font, are certainly uncompromising and some of it is undeniably unwearable. But it’s always full of ideas.
His silhouette this season is dominated by the exaggerated curve of the shoulder line – further evidence of the ongoing battle waged by designers to make the rest of us buy into the wider shoulder they seem to be in love with.
At times that silhouette becomes more about the sleeve than the shoulder itself as the curve continues down the arm and emphasises the fact that the ‘new’ shoulder line may be wide but this is no 1980s revival. If anything it’s more like a futurist vision conjured by by Cristobal Balenciaga, Pierre Cardin, maybe even Courreges in the late 50s and early 60s with a shoulder line that’s more sloping architectural curve than American footballer.
There’s volume further down the silhouette too with loose tailored pants or the trapeze line dresses and flaring skirts in stiff silks that really seem to justify the label’s description of the collection at Prêt-à-Couture.
Pattern is kept to a minimum with a shock of shimmering stripes or allover florals more striking because of their rarity. The same goes for embellishment with a diagonal line of paillettes trimming a shoe or floral paillettes on a shoulder strap never seeming OTT.
What were the key commercial points? Those chunky (but not heavy) pointed shoes; the hooded Lurex knits and striped sweaters; the looser tailoring; the colour combos; the ruffles; the sweet after-six dresses that would make great bridesmaid options…. and those shoulders, of course.
