Emilio de la Morena Spring 2011 Ready-to-Wear Collection on Style.com: Runway Review

Emilio de la Morena

LONDON, September 21, 2010

By Maya Singer

Emilio de la Morena is not afraid of incorporating weighty ideas into his collections. For the past several seasons, the Spanish Central Saint Martins graduate has tussled with the work of artists, such as Eduardo Chillida and Annette Messager, and brought his own art background to bear in painterly prints and sculptural construction. What makes de la Morena a talent to watch, however, is his light touch. He makes clothes girls want to wear—sexy, polished, yet unfussy, and just awry enough to be unexpected. He's not weighed down by his references.

This season—his fourth on the official London fashion week schedule—de la Morena's key reference was the painter Lucio Fontana, a sixties star known for his slashed canvases. Fontana's work was sexually fraught; de la Morena, meanwhile, gave the artist's ideas a cooler atmosphere, focusing on the graphic potential in punctures, slits, and strobes of bright color. This outing felt harder than previous ones, which have seen the designer exploring organic shapes and gossamer textures. Here, he emphasized angularity, draping squares of fabric off skirts (or creating the same effect with blocked prints) and playing geometric games with leather. A primary motif was leather hand-stamped in dot and square patterns, and then set against satin organza, some of it laser cut or hand-embroidered with a similar pattern. A related motif was slashed leather, revealing brightly colored organza underneath.

The designer said after his show that he wanted a cleaner look this season, and that he started development of his collection with the leather. At a certain point, he explained, he realized that he needed to bring in the satin organza and, generally, to soften the clothes. "It's important to be new, but it's also important to be me," he noted. That's good discipline from an emerging designer, and it was a smart call, because without the cloudy skirting and milky sheers de la Morena integrated with the leathers, the collection would have been awfully astringent. More problematically, it would have been a little out of step at a time when most designers are pursuing softer silhouettes and longer hemlines. De la Morena's candied palette was in conversation with the colors seen around London this week, but in pretty much every other way, he was doing his own thing.

See all from Emilio de la Morena › Timeline

A.F. Vandevorst	Acne	ADAM
A Détacher	Akris	Alberta Ferretti
Albino	Alexander McQueen	Alexander Wang
Alexandre Herchcovitch	Alexis Mabille	Alice + Olivia
Altuzarra	Andrew Gn	Anna Sui
Ann Demeulemeester	Anne Valérie Hash	Antonio Berardi
Antonio Marras	Aquilano.Rimondi	Araks
Azzaro

Badgley Mischka	Balenciaga	Bally
Balmain	Banana Republic	Band of Outsiders
Barbara Bui	Barbara Tfank	Basso & Brooke
BCBG Max Azria	Behnaz Sarafpour	Bensoni
Betsey Johnson	Betty Jackson	Bibhu Mohapatra
Bill Blass	Blumarine	Bottega Veneta
Brioni	Burberry Prorsum

Cacharel	Calvin Klein Collection	Carlos Miele
Carolina Herrera	Carven	Celine
Cerruti	Chado Ralph Rucci	Chalayan
Chanel	Charles Anastase	Charlotte Ronson
Chloé	Chris Benz	Christian Cota
Christian Dior	Christian Siriano	Christopher Kane
Clements Ribeiro	Collette Dinnigan	Comme des Garçons
Commuun	Costello Tagliapietra	Costume National
Cushnie et Ochs	Custo Barcelona	Cynthia Rowley
Cynthia Steffe

D&G	Damir Doma	Davidelfin
David Koma	Dennis Basso	Derek Lam
Diane von Furstenberg	Diesel Black Gold	DKNY
Dolce & Gabbana	Donna Karan	Doo.Ri
Douglas Hannant	Dries Van Noten	Dsquared²
Duro Olowu

Edun	Elie Saab	Elie Tahari
Elise Øverland	Emanuel Ungaro	Emilio de la Morena
Emilio Pucci	Emporio Armani	Erdem
Erin Fetherston	Etro