Six Six Sick: Hail Mary

A selection of digitally-printed dresses from Mary Katrantzou's Spring 2011 collection

Yesterday night, I stopped by the London Show Rooms with two of my favorite boys, Brandon and Hector, to take a look at the Spring collections from Britain's finest up and coming designers. It was an incredibly geeky pleasure to meet some of my favorite designers in person, and one of the highlights of the night was meeting Mary Katrantzou and getting an up-close look at her extraordinary digital printed dresses. Mary is a personal design hero of mine, and like a true fan, I decided to wear one of her perfume bottle dresses for the evening, which made her very happy. Mary originally studied to be an architect before switching over to textile design, and eventually fashion, and her latest collection was inspired by interiors. Images of entire rooms are digitally printed onto the garments, which are constructed in a hodgepodge of fabrics that visually resemble the different materials one might find in a room (marble, tiles, curtain tassels), but to the touch, possess the softness of silk. Amongst my favorite pieces were a pair of skirts modeled after lamp-shades, complete with dangling crystal trim, that Mary worried wouldn't be produced, but which have surprisingly sold quite well. I love every piece in the collection so much, I'm thinking of asking my friend Andrew Yang to dress my doll in one her pieces (she saw his Mary Katrantzou dollies, and approves of his interpretation). Not to sound like a total creep, but I'll do anything to get more Mary in my life!