Mobo for Mobo
A mixture of at least 20 different and contrasting fabrics/fabrications: silk chiffon, silk georgette, silk chiffon-georgette, washed stretched silk satin, plain cotton, broderie anglaise, plant patterned valenciennes lace, chantilly lace, crochet cotton, viscose, nylon, duchesse satin, bespoke cotton embroideries, silk tulle, cotton tulle, cotton muslin, silk muslin, cotton gauze, cotton lawn and 7 Japanese Mukuba trimmings (to give the texture). It is in the neutral colours of dirty milk/beige/vintage.
I would describe the dress as "Neo-Romantic." I was mainly inspired by a dress called "princess dress" in Victoria & Albert Museum - a dress named in honour of Alexandra, Princess of Wales (later Queen of Britain). The look was fashionable around 1880, and had approximately 50 metres of Valenciennes lace which was mostly cut into trimmings in the dust ruffle.
We wanted to capture the Vintage-Romantic 1880 and make it modern by adding a little bit of twist - by blending various contrasting fabrications of traditional and modern fabrics. At that time it was fashionable for dresses to have enormous amount of added intricate hand stitched details (on top of precise and sharp cutting) such as ribbons, flounces, shirring, pin-tucks and frills. We only applied couture techniques in constructing this gown - as most of the cut, fabrication and detailing can only be achieved in the old traditional way.
The Artist
Lesley Mobo won the coveted Diesel Award at ITS 3 (International Talent Support) with a collection inspired by the fight for survival in extreme conditions. Titled 'Obesity in the North Pole' Mobo used different textures and layering together with exaggerated shapes to explore the conventional and unconventional form and figure of the human body. The end result was a collection that abandoned the concept of clothing that contained the body and considered its potential for extending it.
Now with his 'own label' collection for Diesel he has reworked these same ideas and delivered a wearable collection as rich in texture as it is in metaphors. (Grabbed from the web)
“It's new-romantic. I like the romantic era as it was the time wherein credit was given to individual imagination and freedom was permitted from the previous notions of form in art. Romanticism speaks a lot about how Jon and I feel about things and our hopes to create something out of the norm and still feel accepted. We believe that conformity creates mediocrity and we so long for that sense of freedom of expression without compromise.
The theme is more of an ideology than a fashion sense but I know that with the right kind of people, there will be a way to visually communicate this idea - through creative use of forms, textures, and colors.
It is new-romantic because I want to bring in our own personal history in it - so, it is not a revolt against aristocracy that we are meaningfully expressing, but a representation of a revolt from glamour and popular trend to bring forth something real - something that's us.”
