After wending our way through a labyrinthine arrangement of low-hanging light bulbs, we emerged into a newly transformed space at Center 548 – the most dramatic set by far this season, and once again it would play host to Sally LaPointe and her A/W 12 collection.
The walls, dripping with rusted copper spray paint and studded with large, grimy air vents gave the runway a distinctly subterranean vibe, like that of a musty city sewer. And it stood to reason – this season, LaPointe took her inspiration from Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the story in which protagonist Gregor Samsa wakes up to find he has been transformed into a giant cockroach-like creature and subsequently suffers a bout of isolation and neglect leading to an early death.
The uniquely dark and well-informed trappings of any LaPointe showing now fully asserted, the lights dimmed, the fog rolled, yet what followed was anything but predictable. From tonight’s runway, it would appear that the designer has undergone somewhat of a metamorphosis herself; romantic silhouettes and soft, muted tones dominated the runway this evening - gone was much of the doom and disquietude of her past collections. The juxtaposition of the runway’s comparative softness against the stark squalor of the space’s décor was appreciated, and LaPointe’s signature “metamorphosis” print for this season was an arresting prelude to a new chapter in her design career.
