NYLON - March 2009 - (Page 94) fashionista: back to the future thanks to off-beat, british designer louise goldin, sci-fi lo and football are in fashion. by samantha gilewicz. photographed by carin backoff FOR LOUISE GOLDIN, the uniform of the future will be a cobwebby catsuit. And since she imagines us in outer space, we’ll be armored by knit exoskeletons with geometric breastplates and crystal-encrusted shoulder pads. Oh, and the future is now. “I love sci-fi,” says the designer, “and in terms of fashion, I love the uncertainty of how a paper drawing can evolve into a three-dimensional form.” It’s a wintery day in London’s arty environs of Shoreditch, and while Goldin—all windblown, flaxen hair, and frostbitten cheeks—is perhaps the last person you’d picture wielding a light saber, there’s a supernatural, clinical feel to her whitewashed studio, hitherto the after-hours haunt Turnmills. And still, the address hasn’t seen this much action since its heyday in the ’90s, when a whirlwind of buyers and press swept through the area following the 29-year-old’s most recent visionary showing at London Fashion Week, clamoring for her avant-garde clothes. Says Goldin: “There are so many levels to running your own label—designing is certainly the most luxurious part of the job.” It’s not all new to Goldin, the daughter of a Jermyn Street menswear-shop owner and a Bond Street boutique manager. “As far back as five, I would go in and dress up, or work with the seamstresses,” she remembers. “But I wound up designing knitwear on a fluke. It wasn’t until the end of my first year at Central Saint Martins that I discovered all the amazing fabrics you can create just by knitting.” This “fluke” would lead to Goldin’s graduate collection, that was snapped up by Selfridges in 2005 and secured her a coveted slot at Fashion East’s spring ’07 presentation the following year alongside Henry Holland. Spring ’08 marked a couple of milestones: a collaboration with Topshop and an official London Fashion Week presence. For the latter, Goldin created a forward-looking collection—inspired by artist Vasily Kandinsky (and no doubt influenced by a brief stint in São Paolo, working for Brazilian designer Raphael Lopez)—of kaleidoscopic, body-conscious rompers topped with fluoro swim caps and space goggles. By fall ’08, she’d further explore her sportswear-meets-cyberspace aesthetic but inspiration for the digital-printed dresses, thermal leotards, and fur-trimmed parkas came from Martians, Eskimos, and American football. “I really did watch American football!” she says. “I think having sharp, square shoulders can create really beautiful and different silhouettes.” This spring, Goldin turned to science, presenting a collection that envisioned what Earth would look like from a satellite. “It’s called Remote Sensing,” she explains. “I also spent hours in London’s Medical Library, researching data, graphs, and high-tech fabrics.” Spun from technical yarns like microfilaments, Goldin’s icy-blue bodysuits were screen-printed with pixilated patterns, overlaid with molded bustiers and paneled skirts, and embroidered with Swarovski crystal spirals meant to resemble the planet’s contour lines. While she wasn’t the only designer with a futuristic vision this season—see Maison Martin Margiela’s overstated shoulders, Balenciaga’s solar-panel prints, and Christopher Kane’s half-circle cuts—Goldin’s space odyssey was at once way-out and wearable. Nonetheless, the designer is reticent about what the near future, or fall 2009, holds: “I want to do something that is really new to me.” So, clothes for the present? Not a chance. 094 stylist: kate erwin. hair and makeup: min min ma at workgroup using nars cosmetics. model: natalia k at next. top, leggings, skirt, and shoes all by louise goldin, head piece by barbara feinman, arm band by jill stuart, bracelets by sullivan walsh.
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