oki-ni: Lou Dalton 2012 Spring/Summer Collection & Interview

Lou Dalton showcased her latest offerings for Spring/Summer 2012 during London Fashion Week’s menswear day. The inspiration took an interesting turn involving the 1984 Miners’ Strike and Matthew Bourne’s male ensemble in Swan Lake. The ironic themes sculpted Dalton’s offerings as the designer opted for cleaner looks paired with detailed garments. Guided by solid hues of basic palettes, the collection brought forth several sleek coats, short tailored shorts, shredded denims and bejeweled tops.

oki-ni caught up with Lou backstage after the show to learn more.

The themes of your collection seem quite diverse. How did you go about bringing two seemingly
opposing ideas together?
It just seemed like a natural progression really because, although they are diverse, they are both
fighting for something i.e. the future. They’re both quite raw and passionate, the miner’s strike and
Swan Lake. It’s also about escapism and freedom of speech and I think the two gelled really well.
And the fabric and colour pallet that we used, I really felt, supported that. I said before that I don’t
want to be pigeon-holed and I wanted it to be fresh and feel like we have something to say. I did feel
that we had that this season.

The introduction of crystal sections was certainly eye-catching. What was the idea behind that?
It was all to do with Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake and a sense of beauty and actually bringing
that feeling of escapism, extravagance and flamboyance, and how one can connect with that. I
feel that we actually did that, while keeping it quite masculine. We didn’t do it in a feminine way,
although often they [crystals] are associated with that. I was very lucky, a very dear friend of mine
Hamish Morro donated us the crystal, which he had for a very long time and I was pleased with the
outcome.

We liked the lightweight parka-style jackets. What fabric were they made from?
Pertex, which is a fabric I’ve loved for a very very long time. It’s owned by a Japanese company and
it’s really weird sometimes because it’s predominantly a sleeping bag fabric which is lightweight and
airy.