I heart wood
It seems that wood does not stop only at impegments in the home and as an interior design element. Wood and its grain is also gaining a space within fashion shows, ready-to-wear and accessories.
Rodarte, a clothing and accessories brand established in the United States in 2005, featured several outfits with wood-effect printed fabrics in its spring 2011 fashion show:
Celine, a French brand founded in 1945, also includes in its fall 2011 collection several releases inspired by suggestions of the texture of wood:
Prada, on the other hand, chooses wood as a material, but limiting itself to accessories, below is a pair of wood-framed glasses, echoing retro atmospheres while maintaining the characteristic shape of the fashion house’s “Swing” model.
Same choice for Louis Vuitton, which offers men’s glasses, with a more modern line, contrasting with the material, once again: wood.
Staying with accessories, internationally renowned designer Stella McCartney launched the Wooden Accordion Clutch Bag, now back in 2010. It is a pure design object, almost a work of art rather than a comfortable accessory to carry with you every day.
Still on the subject of handbags, we can also admire a particular wooden and trendy clutch. This handbag is produced through the use of fine wood panels, made in Sweden; the assembly with the steel metal parts and leather, on the other hand, is made in the United States by Tivi, a young company that aims to create accessories by combining natural materials with fashion.
This is not a “fashion” bag, but an arguably more useful accessory, this wooden laptop case presented during London Design Week 2011. Inside you can fit a laptop up to 17 inches, including a mouse and charging cable.
And finally, we conclude this brief foray into the fashion world with the accessory par excellence: shoes. If in the collective imagination everyone is well imprinted with Cinderella’s crystal slippers, in the 2000s the proposals of the most avant-garde designers are directed towards a completely different material: wood precisely.
Dr. Martens, a historical brand for amphibians, thanks to a collaboration with Spanish designer Davidelfin, proposes a version of the brand’s iconic boots characterized by an unpredictable wood effect.
The designers at Margiela have also created a proposal that strays from the ordinary with “wood effect” shoes that look just like solid wood. They are actually brown leather handcrafted to a realistic replica of wood grain.
And this shoe concludes our brief excursus to see how wood and parquet are always an original cue, whose uses never cease to amaze us. What do you think of these items? Had you heard of them before? Which one intrigues you the most?