Fashion Garments

Much like painter Jackson Pollock, Toronto designer Ashley Rowe isn’t afraid to get dirty. Whereas Pollock flouted artistic convention by famously flicking his paint onto canvases on his studio floor, however, Rowe creates her equally splashy clothing line with the aid of a water gun and her bathroom door.

The night before shooting her fall 2010 look book in January, she hung a T-shirt onto the door, turned up the music and started spraying. “Last year I began hand-painting my labels and hand-dying my fabrics,” she says. “I wanted to explore that [hand-painted] idea [further], so I came up with splattering everything with a water gun.”

The resulting collection – an artfully and individually spattered array of white cotton tees, dresses and jackets – became available through her website yesterday, reflecting a trend toward literally splashy prints that promise to abound this fall.

Designers such as Tory Burch and Diesel Black Gold’s Sophia Kokosalaki, for instance, showcased paint puddle prints on dresses and denim on their autumn runways. The boys at Proenza Schouler, Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, also offered a rubber-splattered jean in collaboration with J Brand as a counterpoint to their otherwise polished prep-school sweaters and pleats.

Looking further ahead, Dries Van Noten’s 2011 men’s wear collection, which featured ink-spotted shirting hand-blotted by an atelier in Lake Como, assures that the look will have legs into next spring as well, Style.com reports.

Just as Pollock’s innovative technique was in his day, this year’s splatter prints are a response to tired, fussier looks and methods, stylist Alon Freeman suggests.

“We’re coming out of an era where everything was [overly] embellished,” he says. “Splatter offers [decoration] without being laden down with all these tricks and bells and whistles.”

And while the truly revolutionary Pollock had to face ill-informed “Hey, I can do that” critiques, consumers this time around are likely to welcome pieces that look decidedly DIY.

“Whether you buy it or make it, there’s a human element there,” says Freeman. “Like a rare fabrication or lining, it’s something special without being ostentatious.”

Of course, some of those runway pieces from Proenza Schouler might set you back a few paycheques, but many of the thrills in this case are cheap.

Rowe’s fall collection is a response to clients who loved her pieces, but balked at the $400-and-up price tags. She kept items accessible – the priciest is a $245 jacket – by reinterpreting silk and leather designs from previous seasons in cottons.

source:- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/style/fashions-fall-fling-with-splatter-prints/article1657695/