Photography by Stefan Gosatti
Beat Poet, Spring/Summer 2009 Runway
A clinically-designed brochure format conveyed a title match-up with a collection coined, Zero Form. For the delights of many, who for the first time would see both designers Ed von Bertouch and James St. Johnson in action (their first runway show after 7 seasons), it was a surfaced beginning that has interlaced a menswear collection that deserve more recognition and dialogue for which discussions of contemporary menswear in this city let alone this country still seems dispersed and primitive. At first, the show shone a reactionary statement for which a remarkably glowing geometric circle of fluorescent pierced the darkened runway. The Russian artist/painter Kazimir Malevich was the cornerstone of this newly-presented collection unearthing the sentiments of understanding fundamental geometric shapes that Malevich voiced as his new art movement called Suprematism. The black circle, created outrightly from Malevich’s Black Square (created in 1913) was a response to the concept of Reductionism. It is the properties of one specific idea that is an interrelation of another and therefore the circle for example, is keeping the pure essence of one form (i.e. the Square). This kind of purist marksmanship transgressed in a broodingly dark tonal palette . Sharp black wool and white/grey cuffed folded trousers were paired by contrast collar buttoned shirts, a military officer’s jacket, madras shirting or a feckled wool single-breasted coat. The industralised and minimalist throbbing layered tailoring were even further enhanced by restrained wrist circular jewelry and in the arms, remarking the collection’s reference to the Reductionist Manifesto and this was inscribed by black boatneck sweatshirts and front zippered zippers were other garments centralising a feeling of emotive objectivity. The circular light installation communicated one meaning: that the void, the spatial dimension within and outside the circle were the spaces in between that kept the garment pieces strong and with significant momentum.
