(Article courtesy of Starworks NY PR).
He liked people to call him “Parks.” He wore a Kashmiri wedding helmet when he shot. He stood six foot, five inches tall, and from that vantage, saw everything. Norman Parkinson moved fashion photography light years forward by making fashion move, taking his posse of poised model-muses out to the street and out on safari, and introducing a glamorous new energy to the pages of Vogue UK and Queen. A few months ago, Alice Temperley was invited to view a series of Norman Parkinson prints that had been hidden away in a private archive in Somerset. The sense of style she saw in those images¾witty, sophisticated, distinctively British¾inspired her Autumn/Winter 2010 Temperley London collection.
Temperley brings her own distinctively British point-of-view to this season’s take on Parkinsonian glamour. There’s a wink of punk, for instance, in the collection’s iterations of the Union Jack flag¾a form-fit Union Jack knitwear dress, a pastel silk Union Jack print, cross-bred with a feminine floral¾and in leathers like the waistcoat covered in mirrored silver studs. Soigné suiting get a graphic dash, striped in acid yellow or made out of double intarsia jacquard. Temperley’s signature knits evolve embellishments idiosyncratically luxe¾chain woven together with yarn, rabbit fur trim, hand-stitched rosettes. Satin-glossed leggings pick up the metallic glint of this collection’s recurring gem embellishment, inspired by the Crown Jewels. Colors pop. Peplums, ruffles, flowing tunic tops and softly draped trousers summon romance.
