Archive for September, 2013

Each season, the Creatures of the Wind woman channels the mysticism of everyday life. Perhaps that’s why so much of the line’s inspiration is found in the art and culture of the 1960s – an era when the legal use of psychedelics opened minds to the exquisite beauty of our ordinary world. You don’t have to live in Hyperborea or drop LSD to see the magic surrounding us. You just have to open your eyes.

The Spring 2014 collection, titled ‘Hail Hyperborea,’ continued the brand’s evolution in a more commercial direction while edifying its fashion DNA – boxy jackets, space-age fabrics and an otherworldly aesthetic. Reviewers tend to attribute the brand’s signatures to its ‘outsider’ roots because Creatures is based in Chicago and not New York. That simplistic explanation denies the credit that is due to designers Shane Gabier and Chris Peters for their fearless championing of a unique perspective. If only all designers could be so brave. You don’t have to live in Chicago to design creatively – you just have to move beyond the groupthink that seems to dominate mainstream fashion.

I was contemplating all of this as I watched the Spring 2014 collection meander past me last Thursday. The show was a simultaneous exercise in restraint (strict tailoring) and exuberance (gold lamé). The final look was a perfect commentary on the inner life of a Creatures woman. Mid-calf dresses are notoriously conservative silhouettes, in this case compounded by short sleeves and a shirred waist. In its refusal to submit to traditional conceptualizations of female sex appeal, this look embraces the idea that a confident woman dresses for herself. And yet the meticulously embroidered navy corset draws attention to her bust and a keyhole back allows a sliver of skin to show, providing evidence of a deeper, private world illuminated by her sexuality. Although the sun shines 24 hours a day in the mythical land of Hyperborea, I’d imagine the Creatures woman is equally comfortable in worlds of both darkness and light.