Head in the Clouds...
“Launched in 2002, Prophetik is an all sustainablefashion lifestyle brand designed by, Jeff Garner from Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee. Jeff’s mission is to bring awareness to the principles of how clothing is produced, dyed, and distributed and the effect these processes have on the planet, and to challenge the design practice known as “planned absolescence”.
It’s my second catwalk show and I’m willing it to be better than the last. It has to be. With a reputation that boasts beautiful yet sustainable clothing, adorned by many a celebrity (including film producer and prominent Vogue.com contributor, Livia Firth) and an invitation that connotes a renaissance fairy tale promises a spellbinding show.
I’m ushered into the heaving waiting area. A frisson of excitement has captured the crowd and we gravitate towards the catwalk hall in an attempt to grab a decent view. A woman standing in front of me talks rapidly to her friend:
“There weren’t nearly as many people last year,” she says in surprise. I take her observation as an indication of Prophetik’s enrichment and successful progression in the past year. The barriers are lifted and the crowd surge forward.At last I find myself in the auditorium and claim a seat in the third row, but realise quickly that my view is hindered by beautiful tall folk. London Fashion Week can be treacherous for short people like me. I ready my camera and attempt to position the viewfinder in between the two heads before me. They keep moving and I fear I won’t get a single credible shot.
I’m suddenly alerted to the commencing of the show by the spine tingling wailing of a violin. Commandeering the runway is; internationally acclaimed virtuoso violinist Analiza Ching who passionately sets the pace for the show, together with award-winning British conductor and composer Benjamin Ellin. As the rhythm rises to a crescendo and the first model gently breezes onto the runway, I am already entranced.
Gowns with floor length skirts, full blouson sleeves and quilted corseted bodices decorate the catwalk and I feel like I’ve been transported into a Keatsian poem. With Jeff Garner’s love of horse riding, I’m thinking La Belle Dam Sans Merci. Elizabethan-esque structured blouses, military styled jackets and velvet knickerbockers approach and inspire. Even the men’s collection has me wanting more. Suede weskits and jackets inspired by the Regency era. The quilted patchwork jackets in pastel colours are a unique accompaniment to a couple of the outfits and work to compliment the look, delightfully completing it.
‘Jeff Garner’s ‘Artist Wonderment’ has been inspired by the court of Louis XV, when art became frivolous, a slave to consumers, diseased of romantic snobbery, pretending to be what they are not’. The collection promotes and encourages a freedom ‘from the pretense of what we would become, fleeing from egotism into the wonderment of an artist’.
The colours used by the designer are all natural and earth based dyes, ranging from burgundy, plum, scarlet and violet to the more occult black, white and chainmail. The burgundy is concocted by combining madder root, gallnut, curled dock and cochineal. The plum hue is fused from indigo, rumex (sorrel), logwood, and madder root. The fabrics used are a synthesis of ripped silks and organic velour and are joined by Lola’s – or as referred to by her great grandson Jeff as, ‘Grandma Garner in Tennessee’s’ 100 year old southern quilts. One of the pieces, a quilted jacket has been crafted by the very bedspread Jeff Garner slept under as a child.
Hemp also appears in the crafting of the heavy skirts and we are introduced to a new fabric – cactus silk, a product of the agave plant, whilst the shoes have been made by artisans using vegetable tanned leather. The jewellery displayed, also incorporates Prophetik’s sustainable philosophy, created by accessories label ‘dotted loop’ whose expertise entails reworking vintage jewellery.
The design that really wows the crowd is Jeff Garner’s finale dress, titled ‘Mrs Moulton’. The breathtaking white gown, is made up of silk organza and naturally shed feathers of ostriches (ostriches shed their feathers twice every year), sewn on by hand. I’m so enthralled by this piece that I fail to take a picture as the model sweeps past, but awaken from my trance by a the unanimous expression of wonderment from the audience, I quickly snap a view of the back before the ensemble of white on white disappears.
The end of the show has arrived and the hall erupts in chatter. I hear one attendee saying to another:
“Too much coverage, I think, we’re not living in the middle ages.” Her companion agrees ardently. I’m distressed by the confrontation that although society continues to encourage, support and completely accept the wearing of flesh bearing clothes, that clothes that cover the body are perceived as inferior, backward and unattractive. If we are truly living in a society of inclusion, shouldn’t one’s wish to adorn clothes that cover a lot be just as acceptable as clothes that cover little?
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