pictures from daydream-nation.co.uk

I was very excited to be invited to the Daydream Nation Alternative Catwalk Show for London Fashion Week. The show was called Good Night Deer and was described as unique fashion-theatre storytelling. I was really not sure what to expect and from the moment I arrived at the Institute of Contemporary Arts the whole show took on an element of surrealism. The story was a dark Burtonesque tale set in a forest with haunting visuals.  A hunter wakes from a kill one day and finds himself transformed into the deer he killed… Who’s the hunter and who’s the prey if you are your own curse? 

Daydream Nation is the collaboration between brother and sister design duo Kay Wong, textile graduate of the Royal College of Art and Jing Wong, theatre design and directing graduate of Central St Martins. The clothes are devised through play and manipulation with old clothes. Through play they create new myths for the clothes each season, resulting in visual catwalk narratives. I think, what they were trying to do with the show was allow the audience to begin to daydream this allowed them to really understand how the clothes were conceived whilst giving the clothes a dream like feel. I believe they really succeeded; I really enjoyed the show and wanted to see more of the clothes. They were all in beautifully rich and deep colours with varied textures from glossy to matt. The shapes were simple yet interesting and overall the whole collection had an understated elegance.

I think Kay and Jing have a real talent for taking their daydreams and transforming them into charming and wearable clothes.

I have been allowing myself to daydream just a little bit, the dress I dreamed of was similar to this beautiful chiffon dress.