After a leisurely, prosecco and bruschetta fueled brunch at nearby Donatella, District L braved the windy backstreets of Chelsea, arriving at Capsule NYC in rare form. The celebrated tradeshow plays host to a bevy of emerging designers and street-wear labels, however visiting IVANA Helsinki’s booth to get a closer look at their AW 2011 collection was the primary line-item on our agenda that afternoon. Fashion Week may have just finished, but we were far from done with our duties this past weekend.
Pirjo Suhonen, sister to IVANA designer Paola Suhonen, was on hand to fill us in on the details behind this season’s collection. A departure from Spring’s upbeat sailor theme, Paola’s romantic aesthetic and knack for prints (all of them, by the way, custom made for this collection) were still just as present - it was great to see the designer’s darker side for sure.
The inspiration this season was special in that Paola sought to capture not only a mood, but a moment in time - that moment being, in this case, the quickening of the air before a big frost (and being from Finland, she knows a thing or two about the cold). The print motifs were definitely the focus of this collection, exhibited on a series of coquettish yet demure silhouettes - frosty green and fuschia feathers, arranged like rime gathered on a windowpane, stood out as particularly creative uses of pattern.
This season’s lookbook, assembled as a series of postcards in a box sporting the aforementioned feather print, was very inspired as well - how fitting that a line that so successfully encapsulated a single, ephemeral moment in time be presented as a series of moments itself. IVANA Helsinki’s cohesion and creativity across all fronts, branding included, is admirable - needless to say, we can't wait for next Spring.
Post by Nicolas Sera-Leyva
