The author’s collection by British designer Lis Watkins is dedicated to the Multi-Local trend, which is rapidly gaining popularity and can be traced in all spheres of life.
The fusion of cultures in the world continues amidst a growing interest in the East and Africa. While people from the tribes emigrate to the cities, Europeans go to places where there is no hot water or cell phones, all to see with their own eyes the lives of others. Those who are so different from us. Those who are so much like us.
At the same time, Cape Town is also a European classic, a strictly corseted English rose, Victorian Bordeaux. Clear, as if repeating the cave painting of Africa, lines. Floral ornaments of colonial style. Impossible, unexpected, crazy – and therefore attractive combination.
BARGELLO LEAVES imitates the Florentine Bargello embroidery technique. In this case, however, it is digitally printed onto velvet to create a design that is unusual for classic collections. Thanks to the looped embroidery of dense cotton, it was possible to achieve an identity with the original African fabrics and folklore patterns resulting from painstaking handwork. Batik and ikat in the collection are combined with floral patterns referring to the female part of the tribe and to the flowers blooming after the rains. The multicolored voluminous embroidery consists of 100% cotton threads on a coarse, colored canvas, which is particularly soft thanks to 45% viscose and 15% linen combined with 40% polyester. The composition of the fabric best reveal its beauty and emphasize how elaborate, unusual, spectacular and textured it is. The embroidery is very dense, made on a slightly translucent canvas and allows light to shine through the veins, creating a play of light and shadow in the interior.
The main emphasis was placed on embroidery of voluminous threads of cotton and viscose, as well as on the combination of dense satin, soft velvet, upholstery shenille, natural cotton and linen, which fully reflect the spirit of African culture. At the same time, all attention was focused on the details and the overall mood. Cape Town is thus the result of how indigenous style influences global world trends.
