The eccentric Dutch label produced another enthralling presentation for a collection where, textured materials and fabrics such as padded leather, fake furs, feathers and oversized knits came in metallic finishes and an array of bright colours were used to create looks that interrogated fashion by exaggerating elements of what, on the surface, were ordinary clothes. Successful examples of this approach included biker jackets that had their dimensions extended in different angularities, jackets that lost their original shape and became oversized by adding numerous feathers, and 1950s-inspired skirts infused with extra volume created by cleverly cutting and layering thick wools.

At a time when fashion designers are under pressure from investors excessively concerned with business profitability, MaryMe-JimmyPaul’s celebration of fashion as an elevating art form reminds us that it’s only because of talented designers’ intelligence, creativity and hard work that the global landscapes of fashion are richer and more meaningful. And for that reason alone, their runway show on 25 January 2014 might have been the most important event of the latest edition of Amsterdam Fashion Week.

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In a small but perfectly edited womenswear range, Laport (a graduate from the Dutch Royal Academy of Art) explored how highly structured shapes and conventional feminine tropes can be used to engender successful praise of high fashion. If his looks started with tailored pants and fitted tops as a way to illustrate how the rigidity of slim cuts serves to highlight the natural curves and lines of the body, they evolved to include laboriously structured pleating and bulbous shapes that exploded from the waist or the chest in different directions to create innovative (and yet very feminine) silhouettes. Nevertheless, and amidst his broken and asymmetric geometries, Laport imbued the collection with dotted floral embroideries that anchored femininity to conventional thinking while subtly questioning the role of embellishment.

Added to a diverse colour palette that comprised neutral blacks and whites contrasted with vivid oranges, yellows and shades of green, this was a capsule collection that, in its curated apparent simplicity, revealed that David Laport is a young designer that the fashion industry should watch for.

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