London Fashion Week SS12: Bora Aksu

Who: Bora Aksu

What: delicately ruffled dresses, sweeping curved lines and layered, tailored separates. Signature demi-couture finishes – hand-sculpted leather roses, draping and dramatic pleating – adorn soft, romantic nudes, zesty corals and turquoise, and dark midnight blues.

Highlights: soft, flowing, feminine dresses, decadently decorated with draping details; Aksu’s use of texture and panelling; and stand-out demi-couture masterpieces.

Lowlights: a lot of it’s unwearable, but then again, Aksu’s signatue is half-way to couture.

Overall: there’s a heart-warming story behind Bora Aksu’s spring/summer 2012 show that enables him to tell a tale through his collection. Inspired by four postcards found in Geneva, he creates the story of Rose and Charles – two French lovers in 1905 – and the course of their love through the clever use of colour: creams and fleshy pinks for romance, corals and turquoise for desire, midnight blues and blacks for sorrow. Curved lines in dresses reflect Rose’s Edwardian handwriting, while sweeping curves, larger by the dress, reference cinched waists of the decade. Decadent pleats, hand-sculpted leather roses, lace, crushed glass beading and draping appear adorned on delicate silk gazette dresses, and other, more extravagant versions – some full-circle-ruffle-skirted, others fishtail. Separates are key for spring, with silk blouses, tailored trousers and short summer jackets proving as wearable as they are layerable in silks, cottons and tulle. It’s a complicated collection, but Aksu manages to mix his signature high-end creations with wearable pieces in an offering that’s both trademark and fresh.

Watch Bora Aksu’s spring/summer 2012 collection below:

To watch more, visit designer_profile.aspx?DesignerID=57

Images: catwalking.com