story by Lo Gray
photos by Aeric Meredith-Goujon
What’s red and black and highly anticipated all over? Katie Gallagher‘s Spring 2012 collection is what. The eponymous line’s Red Red Blood was certainly no joke, however. Working with a minimal color palette, namely variations of black and red, Gallagher was able to utterly arrest her audience. A Cold Cave soundtrack sent models coursing through a forest of syrupy, ‘blood-filled’ vials in creations that tucked and billowed. From the zippered hemline of a voluminous skirt, to the surprise back or no back of a top, her adept tailoring was in full force.
The painfully-shy designer bucked interview appointments at the show, with her publicists handing out a “Media Alert” sheet instead. “My Spring-Summer collection comes from blood. Not the blood of nightmares or brutality, but the blood that’s sanguine, living, and the brightest red, always moving, coursing, and restless inside us, all the while staying hidden to the outside world.”
As is true to Gallagher’s body-conscious design aesthetic, the presentation exhibited a continuation of the silhouette. Gallagher balanced feminine form-fit with tougher elements of leather, zippers, and metal. With leggings as her branding cornerstone, seams of nylon and elastic zipped and curved around legs, forming a patchwork of leather, spandex, and nylon in her preferred monochromatic scheme.
Much like Gallagher herself, makeup was executed with simple, yet striking intrigue. Warm red gel liner, a creation of her key makeup artist Javier Romero, swept the eyes, and brow bones were topped with a sheen of gloss. Faces, also true to Gallagher’s personal cosmetic, remained porcelain and matte. Lips, fittingly, were lacquered red.
Katie Gallagher’s collection is as much about pieces as it is the whole. One look in particular featured a black leather vest, complete with both asymmetrical zipper and collar, paired with a skirt of chiffon panels and viscose leggings. While the garments certainly speak volumes for themselves, together they create an ensemble to be reckoned with.
This designer is anything but linear. With the sanguine theme du jour of late, her collection gave a refreshingly clean and sentient alternative to an otherwise potentially grim concept. Katie Gallagher’s line is incredibly cohesive. and her vision is undoubtedly alive.
