As one of Ghana’s foremost fashion exports, the fashion label Christie Brown has managed to take one of Africa’s most ubiquitous symbols, the African inspired print wax, and turned it into the cardinal piece around which it builds its collections. For the label’s spring 16 collection, Christie Brown turns its sights away from the post-futurist, architectural design aesthetic it has become known for and looks to the past for inspiration. It looks to the American South, and brings the Southern Belle to the 21st century.
Inspired by ‘The Sound Of Music’ a universal childhood staple for most generations born post 1964 and the advent of the television, Christie Brown romanticizes the silhouettes and sensibilities of the fashion of that period and marries it with the label’s aesthetic. It is a nifty trick to try to pull, but the labels does just fine, finding the knife’s edge between the hyper-femininity of that era and the individuality that we seek to embody now.
This season’s Prairie Princess is decked lace bib collars fan out over Ankara jackets, cut to mimic the cinching effect of a girdle. She wears apron dresses made from delicate lattices cut into spun cotton. Even her most androgynous pieces are edged in lace, or fringed or layered over with Ankara with paisley shaped cut outs. Gypsy blouses and layered full skirts, Texan string ties and flared pants, all tied in by the label’s masterful use of vibrant prints.
Christie Brown knocks this collection right out of the park and we cannot wait to see these clothes everywhere in the coming months.
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