Basso & Brooke Press Release S/S 11

“Everyone probably thinks that I’m a raving nymphomaniac, that I have an insatiable sexual appetite, when the truth is I’d rather read a book.” – Madonna

Enter the world of Basso and Brooke Spring/Summer 2011: One where anarchic, gestural expression meets formal, structured restraint; where bleeding edge techno-futurism meets dusty hand-scribbled antiquity; and where lightness, joy and frivolity are met with simmering, shimmering sex.

This is a collection of controlled contrasts; their most straightforward, and yet complex, to date.

Clean, classic lines, with a hint of late 60s/early 70s style modernism give way to a billowing, fluid softness; earthy tones and a soft, dusty pastel palette are shot through with vivid, electric details; and expanses of calm, patterned simplicity act as frames for panels of bold dynamic print.

Shirts, skirts and dresses abound. Hemlines remain short, the mood upbeat – it’s minimalism with the volume turned up; nostalgia with a futuristic face.

“To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward”*

In some quarters, ‘digital print’ has recently become almost synonymous with a particular yet generic, pseudo-futuristic ‘look’. Basso and Brooke, past masters of the technique and always rather believing in it as a process to be explored, counter that assumption here by both remixing it and taking it back into the distant, analogue past: Handwritten notes by Da Vinci, Tolstoy, Balzac, Saint-Exupéry and others reflect an interest in methods of recording the creative mind in the pre-digital era; maps create a meta-layer of topography on the body; pre-digital techniques such as silkscreen are echoed; and ‘finished’ prints are digitally deconstructed to add an element of chance and incongruity.

The overall effect is one of ghostly traces of secret messages, romantic florals and future retro.

To show that hyperreality, too, can have many faces, we see the rougher textures of fabrics such as suede, tweed, leather and tromp l’oeil drapes printed onto other, smoother fabrics: silk gazar, cotton gabardine, light georgette, silk voile and silk shantung form the elegant core of this collection.

To mirror the prim ‘n’ proper prettiness of the clothes, and their vintage palette – reminiscent of 70s Polaroid film – the beauty, by L’Oreal Paris, is clean and fresh with a hint of romantic innocence.

* Margaret Fairless Barber, The Roadmender, 1902

Ends

Press release by Steve Slocombe

CREDITS

Production
Bacchus

Styling
Namalee Bolle

Casting
Shaun Beyen

Soundtrack Producer
Fernando Britto

Make –up
Polly Osmond for L’Oréal Paris

Hair
Alain Pichon for L’Oréal Paris

Shoes
Gil Carvalho for Basso & Brooke

PR
Exposure