Danish Wakeel is a young London based fashion designer who recently launched his forth collection aimed for the fall-winter 2012 season. ‘Draped Modern Kouroi’, his first wearable collection, was created exclusively for men as an echo of the designer’s own metrosexual image and rebellious personality.
An offspring of the industry, Danish fills an aspiring haut-couture niche, aiming his creations to ‘men who are confident enough to look different and ahead of fashion’, men who ‘have an urge to be noticed wherever they go’. The designer’s sense of couture is distinct, his collection fusing high fashion with dark glam and, at the same time, giving a new take on classic designs.
The whole show surrounding the launch event was meant to transpose the audience in a modern Dionysian fairy-tale: red rose petals, feathers, exotic dancers with a slight touch of fetish; a bit tacky if you ask me, but it had the required effect.
The designer ‘s inspiration came from the concept of drapes. Although in current fashion trends drapes are associated with women’s wear, historically they were unisex items, worn by men in the form of togas, kilts or attires. Bearing this idea in mind, Danish produced a collection mainly focused on blazers. He started from the classic shape and gave it wide cuts and asymmetric contours, experimenting with shades, shapes and volumes, which expose plenty of skin and come to embrace those sculpted silhouettes.
The overall monochromatic pallet that Danish used was highlighted here and there with intricate patterns and prints invoking a diverse mixture of artistic leitmotifs. Throughout the collection the eventual chromatic simplicity of particular items was countered with textural details in pieces such as a pair of trousers with embroidered glass beads or, my favorite, a black blazer with black feathers details sewed in the material.
When not blinking your eyes away, the trousers were just supporting other items of the collection. The general cut was an interesting reinterpretation of classic British tailoring details, which was strongly influenced by Ottoman shalwars, wide at the top and skin-tight on the ankle.
Danish did occasionally break the male exclusivity of the collection and introduced a few dresses: a humble study of straight cuts, low backs, frilly details and feminine figures in general.
Although it feels slightly out of the space and time of current mainstream fashion, the collection will definitely find its way to the wardrobes of many extravagant fashionistas.
