fashion rio: coca-cola clothing
(images via ffw)
as i said with their a/w 2012 offering, i tend to want to disregard coca-cola clothing simply on the face of the fact that i don’t really like what feels like a blatant attempt at lifestyle branding (and yes, probably is; i’m also sure there are plenty of other houses that mirror much the same, though i don’t discuss such, but now isn’t really the time to get into all of that), but on the other hand, i’m rather charmed by their colourfully urban, upbeat designs.
and so, for the label’s s/s 2013 outing at fashion rio in rio de janeiro, we saw more perfectly summer-ready cheery clothing without any of those heavy design considerations that sometimes make even the best shows feel a little weighty, a little too serious. this was all vibrant prints and playful, youth-infused cuts, the kind of stuff you’d want to wear on a hot weekend day, and really no more. not that there isn’t a place for that sometimes, though.
anyway, most of the reviews i read attributed the design path for this season to the eighties, with the brazilian site ffw arguing that (trans.) “Coca Cola Clothing now focuses on the…theme ‘Evolution Coke,’ a reference that appears in the form of scientific images transformed into psychedelic prints,” although on the other hand, the brazilian version of the website pure trend did argue that the aesthetic was more weighted in the mid-nineties. i could get behind that thought, at least from the silhouette perspective, if i would grant that the patterns and colours were more mid-late 1980’s in origin.
with this in mind, chic gloria kalil reflected that the girl for summer was particularly young, and they seemed almost troubled by this notion (although really, i’d like to ask, how could it be any other way?), what with all the zig-zag motifs, graffiti references, and the like. but on the other hand, the likes of modaspot summed it up a little nicer, pointing out fun moments, such as how (trans.) “(t)he pants came with high waists, combined with short tops. Bomber jackets [were also featured heavily], as well as many short skirts.”
in the end, i suppose one has to know that coca-cola clothing isn’t going to be the correct place to go shopping if one is courting a tilda swinton-esque look—and harper’s bazaar nailed it by at one point describing the delightfully zany pieces as (trans.) “nonsense.” there’s nothing wrong with having alicia kuczman’s bold, tropical-printed matching jacket and jeans (above), but you’re probably not going to win any major style awards for it, either. and sometimes, that’s just what we need in our lives, no?
