It’s hard to believe that Rory William Docherty’s resort collection was only his second-ever runway show. The New Zealand designer founded his namesake label in 2017 as “a much more extravagant fashion hobby,” he explained backstage. “I wanted to just put beautiful things into the world, and it took me two-and-a-half years to make my first collection, and afterwards I decided I wanted to make this into a viable, sustainable, workable brand.”
Inspired by “pausing and appreciating” things that are usually discarded or overlooked, his new collection is proof that he’s on the right path. A sleeveless midi-length gray organza dress was embellished with all-over bunches of fabric. Flowers? No. They were simply modeled after piles of scrunched-up discarded paper found in his studio, which he sketched and turned into an abstract black and white print; he called them “crushes.”
Docherty also brought back silhouettes from previous seasons, including lace-up details with twill ribbon on the back of jackets, and the white blouse and balloon-ish knee-length skirt that opened the show. The latter made a second appearance later in the show, covered in a blown-up print of the “crushes,” so that its charcoal texture became another element of abstraction.
Elsewhere, a colorful print was directly lifted from a drop cloth found in his studio. “It was one of those moments where I peeled away the original drawing and saw what was left behind and thought, ‘Oh my god, you can’t plan those color combinations!’” Docherty explained. On a slip dress, he once again experimented between 2D and 3D, recreating the drop cloth print with hand-cut strips of silk. An iridescent metallic foil material created many of the collection’s most show-stopping pieces—a metallic green/bronze balloon skirt (the same as the opening look) paired with a beige short-sleeve button-down shirt and matching tie; or the silver asymmetric dress that closed the show. These more experimental material pieces were grounded by his groovy take on suiting; the extra-dropped crotch pants made from swishy fabric, or the three-piece suits that looked to be straight out of the closet of A Room With A View’s George Emerson. “It’s not just a motif for a collection,” the designer said about his vision for finding beauty in the forgotten. “It’s something to live by.”
Source link
