NEVER has Animalia print been seen as elegantly as it was at Akris in Paris this season. Creative director calling the sartorial shots at the Swiss brand, Albert Kriemler – a designer who rarely jumps haphazardly into a collection, instead often approaching with intellectual intent, responded to the call of the wild with aplomb for AW16.
Creating a wild collection that was hot to the touch, Kriemler started with a blaze of flaming orange as saturated as the Kalahari Desert. A recent trip to Kenya and Tanzania, by the way, happened to be all the incentive Kriemler needed to shed the winter blues this season. So it was these scorched sand stripes and leopard, zebra and tiger prints that thrust AW16 into the sweltering sunlight.
Something which we are growing much fonder of during its absence in London, so it seems Kriemler has exactly the right idea aligning his thoughts and inspirations with the equator line this season. This was certainly no average safari au Afrique collection however.
Strategically placing scales of colour co-ordinated leather on not-so-average leather jackets and a serpentine dress is set to make an industry still very much in love with snakeskin motifs fall in love all over again.
Elsewhere the rest of the collection filled tribal voids that have been emerging over the past few seasons, with Kriemler accessorising his latest collection with subtle touches of the traditional dress of African tribespeople. Fortunately, as is his signature, Kriemler did this so lovingly in its subtly that it couldn’t possibly cause any offence.
As a whole the collection was just as chic as ever and despite the vividly themed tactics, it was a collection that was just as easy to digest as ever as well. Now all that’s left to do is praise the sunshine like Kriemler.
by Liam Feltham
Images courtesy of Akris