Australian twins Laura and Deanna Fanning, Kiko Kostadinov’s women’s wear designers, do a lot of research and it was while paging through the “portraits” section of their compendium that they rediscovered sepia photographs of 19th-century Central American “bandidas” and “pistoleras,” in other words, highwaymen of the female persuasion.
They fused those frontier references with nods to 1988 fantasy sci-fi film “On the Silver Globe,” a Polish movie ostensibly about cosmic exploration and primitive cultures, resulting in a pleasing mix of shirting stripes and velvet with metallic knits, performance fabrics and retro-futuristic details.
The silhouettes drew upon Victorian elements like leg-of-mutton sleeves and elbow-length cuffs, the latter translated into separate gauntletlike pieces worn on one arm. “We were struck by the toughness of the female outlaws, but also the femininity in the clothes they wore,” Deanna Fanning, Kostadinov’s girlfriend, told WWD. “There was all this draping and gathering.”
Kiko Kostadinov RTW Fall 2019
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Those details could be seen at the full gathers of exaggerated sleeves, in the ruches of panels and in the cuffed ankles of trousers, and looked great in the duck egg blue trouser suit, with red tuxedo stripe, and jacket with black waist panels that mimicked panniers. And tall lace-up boots, via a collaboration with Camper, reinforced the message.
Those sci-fi references interpolated via structural details like the peaks on the hipbones of one blue and green knitted dress, in the crunchy nylon used in sleeves and panels, and in the form-fitting knitted looks, chief among the latter a green pointelle ensemble with pale blue ribbed collar/capelet hybrid.