Basso & Brooke Press Release S/S 12

“It’s the night that makes the dawning.
It’s the depths that make the heights.
It’s the roots that make the branches.

–     Anon

“It’s when you’ve found out how to do certain things,
that it’s time to stop doing them, because what’s
missing is that you’re not including the risk.”

–     Robert Rauschenberg, painter 1925-2008

 At first glance, this latest collection from Basso & Brooke bears many of the hallmarks for which the duo are renowned. Super-sharp-end technology and technique: check. Luscious, joyous, riotous colour: check. Sumptuous, elegant tailoring: check. Ultra-modern yet classic wearability: check. Upon closer inspection, however, this collection also marks a subtle-yet-significant shift in the duo’s modus operandi.

As the pioneers of digital print, Basso & Brooke were the first to explore and enjoy its many benefits – not least its unprecedented potential for precise placement of specific prints on specific areas of the garment. But what began as a blessing – the bringing together of surface and structure – has now become, if not a curse, rather the defining feature that has come to typify the wider fashion aesthetic of digital print itself. The symmetry, the precision, the wedded togetherness has become a cage, a trope, and with this collection, one the duo have sought to break free from.  How? By engaging with asymmetry, by humanising the digital, by exploring still further, and by working in tandem, but at one step removed.

For Bruno Basso, the graphic artiste, the print-meister, the journey to freedom was a literal one – an expedition by car, from London to Beijing. Driving for weeks in the relentless Siberian twilight, amidst its bleak and brutal landscape, the formal foundations for this collection’s prints were laid: hard, angular lines, sharp contrasts, strong structures – the constructivist essence. And for relief from this daily monochrome reality, he found himself imagining ever-more impossible and colourful alien interjections: put the two together and we have constructivism Basso & Brooke style – a ‘tropical constructivism’, if you will, where hard-edged foliage clashes with distorted seascapes, and man-made textures explode over fading sunlight. Going further still, a second idea emerged, one that questions the idea of what defines ‘a collection’ – rather than produce a politely related set of prints, why not have them evolve from garment to garment? So here we see each print carrying within it the seeds of the next one, on and on, a journey through clothes…

In contrast, for Chris Brooke, the garment architect, the newfound freedom was an internal one, an excursion into drapery, an exploration de l’atelier. Furnished with the printed fabrics, he has in places transformed flat graphic prints into deft drapes, whilst in others accentuated the printed trompe l’oeil effects to create further spatial play. A range of complex construction techniques are deployed, and jacket and lapel lengths juxtapose extended with cropped, yet at all times the finished feel is one of effortless simplicity and elegance, creating a loosely structured, flowing silhouette.

The collection is complemented perfectly by a fresh beauty look by M.A.C with emphasis on the eyes, and effortlessly and confidently just-so hair with natural textures by ghd.

Ends

Press release by Steve Slocombe

CREDITS

Production
My Beautiful City

Styling
Namalee Bolle

Casting
Luke Foy

Soundtrack Producer
L Flajore

Make –up
Mel Arter @ CLM for MAC

Hair
Kenna for ghd

Jewellery
Borba for Basso & Brooke

PR
Goodley