Michael van der Ham Fall 2012
Every collection by Michael van der Ham consistently starts with the cloth. And so for fall the Dutch designer crushed, draped, and pleated rich organza, silk, and silk jersey into what has end up defined as his beautifully fragmented, signature style. This time however, it was a deconstructing of the image-perfect vision of the early 1930s American woman, as depicted within the Ziegfeld Follies, that van der Ham kept on the forefront of his mind.
In a season it’s largely shaping as much as be about oversize proportions and lush outerwear, what the fragile fabric arrangements dancing round the models on this troupe proved was that the Central Saint Martins–trained van der Ham isn’t one for following trends or adhering to conventions of any kind. (Indeed, uninspired by the rolls of bespoke vintage prints that arrived at his studio, the designer set about reimagining them into something unrecognizably mismatched). Using flecked metallic jacquards, printed silks, and a dusting of embellishment as his base, van der Ham’s form-fitting pencil skirts, sheaths, and sweater dresses (which marked a completely fledged foray into knitwear using tactile mohair and cashmeres) offered a hyper-feminine and charmingly imperfect strategy to evening wear.
What resonated most strongly in regards to the overall familiarity of those collaged silhouettes however (which might be essentially a reconfiguring of traditionally feminine dress codes) was their enduring quality, that may only serve to intensify the collectability of van der Ham’s growing line.
