This season, Eley Kishimoto invited us to invoke our inner child with their aptly titled collection, Little Devils.
The S/S 09 show played out like an eclectic medley of childlike fantasies and whimsical imaginings that manifested themselves in gingham skirts and floral smock dresses; in hats and helmets of all shapes and sizes and in sparkling lizards emblazoned across fluorescent jerseys.
Colour schemes and prints were just as schizophrenic, as if torn from the pages of a kid’s colouring book; indeed the first few looks saw the whole outfits delineated boldly, with a heavy black, as if by felt tip. Further down the line, pastoral patterns in insipid pastels snapped into psychedelic whirlwinds of bright, lurid tones, and reinforced once again, the duo’s longstanding status as innovators of print.
Out of context, the collection made little sense, Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto having apparently thrown anything and everything into the mix this season. When imagined through the eyes of a child however, as was the intention, it all fell logically into place.
