Hello everyone, Today I would like to talk about the designer Mother Of Pearl. I was not familiar with this brilliant designer until London Fashion Week 2018 where I discovered the beauty and colour of the Spring/summer 2018 collection. From red florals to blue and white stripes, Amy Powney brings humour to the brand along with a sportswear feel.

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Mother of Pearl is a luxury womenswear brand that celebrates individuality and authenticity. Based in East London, the brand takes an often humorous approach to print and design; sportswear runs through its DNA, fused with luxe fabrications and careful design. Ultimately, Mother of Pearl creates clothing that strikes a balance between the casual and luxury: effortless day wear, which can be elevated to be special enough for any occasion.

Creative Director, Amy Powney, joined Mother of Pearl in 2006, four years after the brand was founded by Maia Norman. In 2015, she was appointed Creative Director and went on to develop a complete range of ready-to-wear, handbags and shoes.

Powney draws on references from her childhood in the North of England and is inspired by the strength and real femininity of the women who surrounded her, as well as the sportswear trends so prevalent throughout her teenage years in the 90s and early 2000s. Powney often looks to important social photographers, and fashion photography from the same era to inform her designs. (Words http://www.motherofpearl.co.uk)

Spring/Summer 2018

For Spring/ Summer 18 the Mother of Pearl woman has fallen into a David Hockney painting and been transported to a Californian poolside mansion. It wasn’t so much Hockney’s use of colour that awed Amy Powney, although the hues of this collection have been lifted from his pallets, it was Hockney’s simplistic style choices which he uses to create such a vast sense of perspective.

From this point of focus, Powney set about to combine scales of prints and checks, playing with rouching, pleats, and combinations of fabrics, to form a sense of foreground and depth within a singular garment or outfit. Powney also found inspiration in Sophie Calle’s ‘The Chromatic Diet’ to style co-ordinate the pieces by block colour and print.

Powney, never a far cry away from her Northern roots, naturally combined the life-style of Hockney’s Californian high society friends with her core references for the brand. She looked to her childhood holiday’s with her Grandma at the British seaside, with a nod toward Martin Parr’s photo series, ‘The Last Resort, evident in the stick of rock stripes, silk scarves bowed on shoes and quilted anoraks.