Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem Die Flamingos, designers Doreen Schultz and Clara Leskover of c.neeon conjured up a magnificent garden of fantastical flora and fauna with their winter 2010 collection. Tight pants and structured tops in elaborate black and white prints were matched with fine strips of silk in antique pink, adding a new kind of a femininity that we’re not used to from the Berlin-based duo. Though I’ve never been a great fan of pastels, a strapless maxi dress with a ruffled floral element on the waistline in, yes, pastels, made me reconsider the color scheme of my own wardrobe.
The botanically inspired collection included darker colors, too, like rich grey-green and black which featured in geometrical shapes. Heavy woolen winter coats were structured on the sleeves and back to create a sculptural form. All sleeves received quite a lot of attention in this collection, including dresses with bat sleeves, blouses with super-puffy sleeves and ties (wonderfully matched with high waisted, pleated pants) and a dress with oversized sleeves that meet in the front to tie around the waist.
Because of c.neeon’s intricately detailed prints, it was sometimes hard to make out where one garment ends and the next begins. So, for example, there was a certain pleated and layered skirt, that could have actually been a dress or a belted caftan worn over leggings. The trompe l’oeil effect achieved when being fully clad in c.neeon is something the designers readily play with and one look especially kept me and my friend guessing exactly how many pieces were in the outfit we’d just seen. What we all were certain of, however, is that we loved the full length sculptured black dress that sealed the show.
The models were wearing frames and sunglasses by MYKITA, a collaboration that left me generally unmoved. However, as a serendipitous added value for the Berlin-based sunglasses manufacturers, as we were leaving the show the sun was out for the first time in two weeks!
