Having not too long ago drawn on the anthropomorphic sculptures of Isabelle Albuquerque, David Koma this season set his sights on a special sort of shape-shifting superwoman: the Bond lady. “She’s assured, empowering, and harmful,” he mentioned throughout a preview of his pre-fall assortment in his Shoreditch studio. “Similar to the Koma lady.” Between the graphic structure of a little bit black costume and the liquid sequins of an almost-transparent robe, the designer burnished—when it will have been simply as attention-grabbing to see him complicate—the femme fatale trope: a black widow weaponizing her powers of seduction with a come-hither gaze and a deadly contact.
Koma mentioned he started by setting his design group three James Bond motion pictures to observe, beginning with 1995’s GoldenEye, by which Famke Janssen performed a Soviet murderer referred to as Xenia Onatopp. Her stealthy stylish impressed patent, croc-embossed bodices and hip-jutting mini skirts, whereas 3D-printed enamel pebbles have been hand-embroidered onto leather-based corsets and luggage to imitate scales. The fiery crimson of the character’s Ferrari seems in sizzling bursts of colour all through the gathering. Elsewhere, Jill St. John’s portrayal of Tiffany Case, a glamorous jewel smuggler in 1971’s Diamonds Are Ceaselessly, gave rise to stretch leather-based skirts, trench coats, and night attire scattered in rough-hewn crystals, whereas a liberal utility of fake fur was a direct reference to the mink throw underneath which she seduced Mr. Bond. Then there was Grace Jones’s iconic flip as Might Day in 1985’s A View To a Kill. She was the primary Bond lady to have a direct hand in her personal costumes and referred to as on Azzedine Alaïa to create them. No guessing the place the power-shouldered tailoring and waist-cinching biker jackets got here from—even the geometric strains on tapered skirts and uneven mini attire recalled her famously angular strikes.
Constructed from bonded satin and velvet, these explicit items have been extra light-weight than they appeared. “I like that steadiness between drama and ease,” Koma mentioned. “There must be a sense of softness even within the sharp edges.” The designer labored via various dichotomies of this nature. Exact tailor-made strains have been squared towards figure-hugging viscose jersey attire; boned denim bustiers towards tactile trims; robust leathers towards clusters of translucent paillettes. The masculine was additionally juxtaposed towards the ultra-femme. To wit: a double-denim look and bonnet-enveloping coat have been mirrored in Koma’s males’s line—only one web page within the designer’s still-growing enterprise portfolio. Not lengthy after seeing Koma’s pre-fall assortment, this reviewer ran into him as he was embarking at Milano Linate. He’d been on the town to place the ultimate touches on his upcoming Blumarine runway debut. “I’m typically drained,” he mentioned. “However I’m by no means burdened—and that’s a really, crucial distinction.”