Middle Ages Woman

This year, time and time again images feminine warriors marched down the runways. From Prada’s studded gladiator dresses and Hermès’ fighter pilots to emerging designer, Gemma Slack’s medieval armor techniques and Samurai inspired silhouettes. After a two year apprenticeship with Gareth Pugh, Gemma slack launched her own label in Spring 2009. While utilizing similar dark visual approach, she embarks on her own by creating a fierce collection that’s more feminine, more real, even down to the digital smoke printed silk “reminiscent of burning church thuribles.”, which on first glance looks marbled, but upon closer inspection reveals itself.

Why this battlefield chic is revealing itself now, I’m not quite sure (oh yeah, two wars, recession, global warming, size zero), but it’s real, you can’t make two clicks on the fashion web without running into gauntlets, spikes, harnesses, combat boots and the like. It’s as though we want to make the darkest post-apocalyptic sci-fi action movie a self fulfilling prophecy by dressing the part. Or perhaps we’re finally coming to terms with our darkest selves, no longer rebelling against generations of pretending like being good is all it’s cracked up to be. I hope it’s the latter, because I love this aesthetic, even though I’m not exactly sure if I’m comfortable with why.