The Lake & Stars design duo, Nikki Dekker and Maayan Zilberman started with a handful of references -- in their words, "a 1970s take on what Italian neoclassicism would look like" -- and shared them with their friend, the artist Francesca DiMattio, who made a painting.
It was from that painting that the fall 2011 collection came alive, literally, with painterly textiles and prints swirling drawings together on a diaphanous camisole and in the shoes, handpainted with enamel.
"We worked alongside one another. We did our collection and she did her paintings and we kept meeting and it turned out there were so many things that layered into one another and there was so much overlap -- so she was very much our muse this collection," said Zilberman.
Dekker added, "A lot of the challenge behind lingerie is that each piece needs to be very functional. so creating a different mood and theme and aesthetic each season is always a very fun and interesting challenge for us. it made it quite easy, having this piece of work from Francesca to be able to apply to different shapes throughout the collection."
Indeed, it is perhaps this mutable concept of fashion in lingerie that made The Lake & Stars the first lingerie label to win the coveted Ecco Domani fashion award. The latest collection shows a juxtaposition of utilitarian grommet closures and crushed velvet, mesh panels and ribbon detailing. Playsuits and tap pants in the lightest flowing silk in seasonal color pallette of black, nude, olive and some pops of grass green reinforced the line's dancer-like quality once again. We were particularly drawn to a cropped, racer-back sheer nude camisole encrusted with dark beading, and paired with high-waist panties.
We can say with certainty the designers have a talent for creating womanly silhouettes, as their range of models varied in figure, from the very thin to (refreshingly) curvy.
