Ed Meadham and Ben Kirchoff are the absolute masters of madness. For Spring/Summer 2012, the designer duo reached new heights of brand-synonymous wonderment. Unlike the tongue-in-chic vintage-bound pieces of their last few seasons, this was a super literal candy-coated extravaganza.
Underneath balloon-coated archways, a school of Courtney Love manqués danced out and routinely applied their rouge. Following them were the ‘real’ models dressed in almost the antithesis of their Spring/Summer 2011 collection; a collection which pushed and brilliantly overdid the ideas of female gender expectation. This season, it was a full embrace of “the women on the cake” (at one point, after another gaggle of schoolgirl ballerinas appeared, there was actually a Busby Berkeley-style arrangement of models on a gargantuan cake). We’re talking starlets, models, showgirls, beauty pageant queens, and princesses. Meadham said he wanted to take them off the cake, and put a real girl – non defined by but indulgent in feminine frippery – up there.
Every look was styled theatrically, yet each garment was individually wearable; checked-out button downs, hot pants, broderie anglaise, sculptured dresses, vintage cartoon appliques, baby-doll mixed with elaborate vintage shapes, and pastel-fluffed marabou coats. A dream come true for anyone who has ever liked the colour pink. There were many eyes that couldn’t stay dry.
