LFW Diary AW12: Ada Zanditon (part 2)

Introducing her new collection, ‘Simia Mineralis’ via an enthralling film presentation on the inaugural day of this season’s LFW, Ada Zanditon’s AW12 collection is a triumph. With a title meaning ‘ape of the mineral’, Zanditon’s new offering depicts ‘the human thirst for technology and the consequences of our greed for it’ through an intense colour palette of red, grey and black.

A journey of awaking, the collection deftly uses expressions of shape and form to explore the past, present and future of the human race. Signature silhouettes are reworked, taking inspiration from the structure of metals at the atomic level and layers of the earth from an archaeological yet modern perspective.

With an undercurrent of the Victorian era bubbling beneath the surface, prints are inspired by Pan, the god of nature and the wild, created from intricate repetitions of the designer’s drawings, photographs and paintings of animals.

In keeping with the film short directed by Thomas Knights, the mood and tone of ‘Simia Mineralis’ is frantic and conflicted, seeing swathes of silk geometric prints drawn together effortlessly to create a plethora of glamorous evening dresses and staple jackets and coats.

The showpiece of the collection is a dramatic, yet elegant conceptual tailcoat inspired by the Silverback male gorilla and features a shock of sustainably sourced human hair – highlighting a controversial and expanding sector of the hair and beauty industry. An animal with whom humans share 95-99% of our DNA, Zanditon has an affinity for the Silverback gorilla, exploring the impact of mining on primate species and the consequences of human conflict and poaching which result in increased habitat loss.

An immensely gifted and intellectual designer, Zanditon is in her own league, eschewing cyclical trends and mainstream inspirations to instead reflect her passion for ecology and in particular conservation, exploring the individual and social struggles to resolve both natural and manmade conflicts through a series of simple choices.

A collection of juxtapositions, there is a tension between fluid shapes and strong structures throughout, with a range of textures and cuts creating a cacophony of beautiful garments of varying volume. A scholar of sustainability, this season sees Zanditon work with several luxurious S+E fabrics including fair-trade organic velvet, denim and cotton sateen, British woven wool, up-cycled Chanel tweeds, eel skin and vegetable-tan leather.

Keeping waste to a bare minimum, Zanditon has gone one step further for AW12, reapplying fabric residue from her SS12 collection to create the interior architecture of many of the intricate pieces.

Once again geometric jewellery is produced in collaboration with the wonderful Luca Romanyi, seeing laser-cut and etched walnut dominate, with organic paint, eek skin and vegetable-tanned leather providing exciting accents and embellishments. Lifting a key print of this collection from Zanditon’s original artwork, Romanyi has effortlessly translated it to wood, creating an expertly crafted collection of architectural inspired pieces.

LFW Diary AW11: Ada Zanditon

A concept designer whose bold collections I genuinely look forward to seeing every season is Ada Zanditon (pictured above with her collection), whose talent and international renown has gone stratospheric since I was first introduced to her work in October 2009 through a writing assignment for Amelia's Magazine. Taking a different approach for this AW11 season, Zanditon's collection, entitled The Cryoflux, premiered with a short film inspired by the collection (directed by Andrew and William Ho), accompanied by a static presentation at On|Off's new show space at The Mercer Studios. As a must-attend event off-schedule, Ada's presentation created so much buzz that guests had to queue to take pictures of each mannequin in a very orderly and classically British fashion.

Season after season Zanditon continues to show why she's at the forefront of ethical fashion, winning awards for her pioneering, creative and intellectual approach to womenswear. Continuing to persu her trademark aesthetic for sculptural and architectural design, this season Zanditon takes inspiration from the extreme climates of Antarctica. Reflected through a cool colour palette of navy, marine and flame, Zanditon plays to her strengths utilising the fluidity and structural elements of her heavily textured fabrics: melton wool, Scottish tweed, Ocean Buckingham shantung, firebird, marine double ombre chiffon and black vegetable tanned leather – bet you've never heard of some of those fabrics before!

With fewer garments showcased than I recall seeing in previous seasons, the collection had a great impact none-the-less, with many of the bloggers, fashion editors and stylists in attendance 'coo'ing over each and every piece. With a strong collection of show stopper dresses (perhaps out shining the separates), references to the natural formation of unbroken Antarctic waterfalls were bountiful. Eye-catching separates included the garbadine flared shorts and a stunning double silhouette maxi skirt. Coats also featured heavily, as you'd expect from a winter collection, with a variety on offer to suit any occasion (military, pea, trench and puffa), geometrically cut in an endless variety of digital prints and glacial silks. Building upon their prior collaborations, once again Zanditon has teamed up with chic jewellery designer Luca Romanyi to produce a magnificent range of geometric statement necklaces, created using a combination of printed tiles, silver chain and vegetable tanned leather.

Not necessarily how I would have chosen to present en mass on the inaugural day of LFW, somehow it worked, and yet again Ada Zanditon has triumphed, proving ethical and sustainable fashion can be just as chic, visionary and exciting as non, if not a hundred times better – and as an added bonus you get to enjoy your wardrobe with a squeaky clean conscience.

Adaz gets festive in Belgique

My favourite ethical designer - most certainly of 2010 if not of all time - Ada Zanditon has launched a stunning Christmas window display at the Halelujah Store in Brussels, perfectly demonstrating the versatility of her creative and intellectual design approach. Capping off a hugely successful season, Ada was approached to create a display based on her SS11 Pyramora collection. The stark, moody display includes trees inspired by her epic Nepthea dress, utilising her trademark pyramids and iconic symbols of the Christmas tree to create sculptural surfaces using repeating geometric shapes.

With icicles constructed from isosceles triangles, suspended from chains with small silver bells stitched onto the tips so they jingle in the breeze, Adaz has taken the concept one step further incorporating AW10 collection pieces including a puffa jacket displayed on a spiked mannequin standing in the midst of a forest full of icicles. Perpetuating the festive theme and adding a finishing touch to the window display is a unique mobile of halos created from jewellery by Ada Zanditon and Luca Romanyi, which I'm certain will entice shoppers inside the Halelujah store, located on Rue Antoine Dansaert, Brussels.

LFW Diary SS11: Ada Zanditon

A firm favourite, whom I have followed for the past three seasons (SS10 and AW10), yesterday afternoon at On|Off, Ada Zanditon displayed a salon show of her new SS11 collection, quirkily called The Pyramora – to rave reviews and rapturous applause.

Utilising fractal geometry and tessellation to provide the foundation for her architecturally disciplined collection, Zanditon combined innovation and ingenious shapes with technical precision, to create something entirely her own. Inspired by The Great Pyramid and the delicate structure of coral reefs, Zanditon plumped for light and translucent materials such as fine chiffon, organic cotton, silk douppion and recycled heritage British brand trench fabrics to form intriguing structural shapes.

With gravity-defying conical hair personifying the pyramid theme, models were adorned in vibrant iridescent turquoise, gold and burnt orange present in a kaleidoscope of prints depicting coral reefs combined with watercolour to provide the colour palette and backdrop for the range, completed with Zanditon’s illustrations.

A matching caramel coloured vegetable dyed leather crop top and mini skirt was a standout look that shouldn’t work, but indeed it did exuding attitude and confidence. For the first time – I can recall - Ada has collaborated with a jewellery designer, Luca Romanyi to produce square porcelain tiles broken into triangles depicting the recurring prints, enhanced with Swarovski crystals and leather.

A truly fabulous collection and I’m really rooting for her to get more stockists and the international acclaim she truly deserves.