Veronique Branquinho Fall/Winter 2015

By Liza Foreman

Veronique Branquinho Fall/Winter 2015

Most of the time these days, fashion editors complain about trekking across town for fashion week shows but sometimes the discovery of unusual interiors selected as a venue by designers makes it a pleasure.

Such was the case on Monday when Veronique Branquinho chose a vacant Hausmann style apartment tucked behind Opera that was matched by an original show.

The building came complete with ornate ceilings and dangling wires and the requisite models who walked to a surreal sound track combining classical music with booming back beats, and an eerie sounding songstress whose voice interrupted the classical flow.

And the clothes in some way mirrored the two worlds. There was at first black, black and more black peppered with patchwork pockets on a jacket in soft orange wool or a Tartan style material used for a flowing pleated skirt worn with a white blouse. And more iterations on the form. Think the soft heathers of Scotland given a romantic twist, like a rich woolen skirt in orange and black dogtooth pattern flowing to the floor.

There was also innovation, like a floor length skirt starched out into a wide hoop around the ankles representing an innovative play on traditional crinoline extended skirt forms.

And there was leather and a touch of S&M in a top that twisted across a models torso revealing white flesh beneath.

It was a beautiful, original collection drawing on romantic womanly styles of old, jazzed up with beautiful rich textiles and relying on a play with form using avant garde and sometimes mannish touches mixed with the romantic and the siren and bright pops of eye-catching colors to bring Branquinho into a design world of her own making.