When British-born Nicomede Talavera presented his AW14 collection at this season’s London Collections: Men, it was a collection inspired by the designer’s love for graphic lines. A love ignited by his research of artists who’ve successfully transformed geometric shapes into meaningful sculptures and paintings. Ellsworth Kelly is often mentioned in conversation with the young designer, but this season he took his main inspiration from the American minimalist Robert Morris’s untitled felt pieces.
Morris created the pieces in 1967-68 when he purchased rectangular sheets of industrial felt and cut into them with a series of straight lines. When suspended, the strips of felt would tumble from their own weight. He wanted to question the fixed geometric shapes of Minimalist sculpture and the way Minimalism imposed order on materials. As he wrote in his essay ‘Anti-Form’, the alternative was to let materials determine their own shape.
While Morris’s thoughts were easily felt in the silhouette, Talavera’s decorations, which consisted of various rectangular appliqués, were inspired by photographer Nigel Shafran’s 1990 book Teenage Precinct Shoppers, which is an exploration of suburban 90s fashion amongst British youth.
