How Frogs, Insects, And Squid Make Fashion

They served as the basis for a show that is what every person who fancies themselves terribly cool will want to wear next winter.

Image by Mark Von Holden / Getty Images

The Kimberly Ovitz show can pride itself on at least two things: some of New York fashion week’s most unique, sculptural hair and what ought to be some of the best show notes of the week. They read:

THROUGH OBSERVING THE HUMAN PSYCHE AND NATURAL DEFENSES THAT MANIFEST MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY, OVITZ EXPLORED THE INTRICACIES OF THE ILLUSIONAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS SEEN IN ANIMALS AND INSECTS. TRAPUNTO STITCHING ON ANGULAR OUTERWEAR MIMICS THE SEGMENTED ABDOMENTS OF SPECIES PROTECTED BY EXOSKELETONS, WHILE STIFF COATED COTTON SCULPTS OUTERWEAR AND CONTRASTS WITH SOFT, FAUX SHEARLING LINING. SIGNATURE BODY-CON STYLES INCORPORATE RAISED SEAMS THAT CONTOUR AND ACCENTUATE NATURAL CURVES. OTHERWORDLY [sic] COLORS SEEN ON CREATURES LIKE POISON DART FROGS AND ANEMONES ARE EXPRESSED IN A BOLD PALETTE OF LAVA, LAGOON, LAPIS, SULFUR, AND EMBER, GROUNDED BY THE FOUNDATION OF GRAPHITE, COPPER, ZINC, AND ARACHNID. HALLUCINATORY PRINTS ROUND OUT THE COLLECTION, INSPIRED BY MICROSCOPIC VIEWS OF SCALES, EXOSKELETONS AND SQUID INK, ECHOING NATURE’S ELUSIVE DEFENSE MECHANISMS, KIMBERLY OVITZ CREATES AN EMPOWERING BALANCE OF LIGHT AND DARK FOR THE AUTUMN/WINTER 2013 COLLECTION.

Got that?

Ovitz said she studied “animals’ natural defense mechanisms” including the exoskeletons of beetles and the poisonous skin of dart frogs.

Image by Mark Von Holden / Getty Images

Image by Charles Tilford via Creative Commons

Ovitz does have a bug phobia, “But that’s different from being very fascinated by how they work.”

Image by Mark Von Holden / Getty Images

The designer also described being intrigued by creatures “with the vivid color, where they’re kind of screaming ‘don’t eat me’ for protection.” To be fair, I think a lot of things at fashion week are screaming “don’t eat me.”

Image by Mark Von Holden / Getty Images

Via: http://ucumari%20via%20Creative%20Commons

And this wouldn’t be a Kimberly Ovitz show without a hot dress or two.

Image by Mark Von Holden / Getty Images

She also delivered this shiny mummy dress which certainly takes one side in the debate of which is more important — free use of one’s arms or fashion.

Image by Mark Von Holden / Getty Images

Source: google.com

Game of Thrones, anyone? Anna Wintour? Tory Burch? Jenna Lyons? Any of you other uptown ladies in attendance plan to rock this one?

Image by Mark Von Holden / Getty Images

Image by Mark Von Holden / Getty Images

The exoskeletal sheen on the clothes was created with tar gloss, which Ovitz said is like “a thick resin.”

Image by Mark Von Holden / Getty Images

The necklaces you see will be available not long after the show, thanks to the process by which they are made called 3D printing. Basically she creates a digital mold of whatever she wants to make, and then a machine cuts that mold out of a piece of metal.

Image by Mark Von Holden / Getty Images

This is Ovitz! Note her especially cool ear cuff that personal style bloggers the world over are going to order immediately.

Image by Joe Kohen / Getty Images