If you grew up in the '80s you certainly remember early videogames for the Spectrum or the Commodore 64.
Though their graphic details weren't obviously so perfect as the ones in hyper-real modern games, those crude and raw sprites representing characters, objects and sets were still quite engrossing, especially if you had never seen anything like them before.
Maybe also Julien David was a fan of early videogames or of the Print Magic programme, passions that somehow entered into his Spring/Summer 2014 collection.
Entitled "The Tribe of the Seven Seas" the collection was based on marine themes in general. Though this is a rather trite subject, the designer approached it from a sort of Elio Fiorucci perspective, interpreting them in a simple yet clever way.
The life buoys, desert islands complete with palm trees and seaweed leaves may have been taken from "Treasure Island - Dizzy", a popular '80s game that followed an egg-shaped character in an adventurous trip.
Wherever that inspiration came, it was interesting to see how David recreated on sweaters these sprite-looking motifs using intarsia techniques, or printed islands and colourful fruits here and there.
The designer also embroidered marine motifs on tulle veils (layered on tops and sweaters - this was maybe a bit redundant, while it would have been nice to see those veils used for irreverent hats and headpieces...), filling the holes of the tulle in the same way you would create sprite graphics on a screen (did he spend hours as a child colouring in the squares of graph ruled paper notebooks to draw his paper sprites like many of us used to do? the mystery remains...).
The seas that inspired the designer - from the Mediterranean to the the Red and Black Seas - were evoked also through fabrics: holographic polyurethane was employed to call to mind the changing colour of water; different fabrics were used to form undulating arcs reminiscent of waves and a blue fabric with jacquard-like effects seemed to incorporate in its texture glitch motifs.
In most of the Spring/Summer 2014 collections seen so far, sport and informal garments prevailed (in Julien David's case there were various examples, from varsity jackets to hoodies), suggesting that, come next Spring, we will be moving, travelling, working and generally be more dynamic and active than we have been so far (a reaction to the general psychological and financial paralysis that has gripped us in the last few years?). The casual and playful elements in David's collection had an added youthful edge, but its links with vintage sprites may prove a hit also with those more mature buyers (and consumers) gripped by nostalgia for '80s computer graphic.
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