COOPERATIVE DESIGNS!!

Annalisa Dunn and Dorothee Hageman met on the MA course at Central Saint Martins. They specialise in bright, bold geometric knits. The knits play with different perspective and textures giving the clothes a lot of depth. Dun describes the design process in an interview, “Dorothee has more of a womenswear background then me, she has developed a process she calls Primary pattern cutting. Pieces are designed as flat graphic angular shapes then left to drape and distort on the body. This process particularly suits knitwear, as it has such great drape and stretch properties.”The duo are heavily influenced by Bauhaus and Russian Constructivism.

Their latest collection for AW 11 had a drum and base feel, with loose see-through knits with mohair textures and orange neon piping. The designers are heavily influeneced by the nineties, the collection manages to merge hip hop and grunge. Graphic neon knits can often look cheap and nasty, but the designers avoid this by using muted greys and washed out khaki giving the collection a grubby edge accented with neon laces.

My ultimate favourite collection would have to be SS11 with the bright mismatched and clashing geometric angles, it is Art Deco 1920s  meets 1990s bubblegum pop. It was named the ‘Bollywood to Babylon’ collection, the designers were inspired by Evelyn Waugh's book Vile Bodies and the occult films of Kenneth Anger. The models when presenting the collection for the first time all drank champagne and chattered animatedly to the sounds of piano music, encapsulating the decadent, excess of the 1920s.

 AW10 had a Bauhaus meets Kwaftwek vibe, with its grids and stark linear greys. The designers layer on lots of different components with different sized stripes, playing with proportion and scale. The clothes have a myriad of different textures making them appear almost 4D.

Here David Poole capture the essense of Cooperative Designs AW10 with his drawings.

Coperative designs also teamed up with hussein Chalayan for AW08 to create some spectacular knitwear. In this dress below the designers mix elements of pattern cutting with knit, creating a lot of depth.

 

The designers AW 2009 collection is another favourite of mine mixing collage and building up the surfaces of the clothes. With folk art influences and dynasty shoulders with seem to defy the laws of knitwear!

The duo use traditional techniques when making the clothes, they are painstakingly made offering an antidote to mass produced fast fashion. Yet the clothes are high fashion yet they are not horrifically expensive, ordinary people can aspire to buy these clothes, with knitted bras selling for just £60!