Wilkommen

In her second spring/summer collection, Carola Euler steps out of a universal seasonal safety zone and into what she has termed "a naive approach to luxury dressing." This approach has more geographic/historical specificity than Euler's 2007 collection; it is ever-so-slightly Devo meets Weimar Republic with a decided sportif edge that has been carried over from the previous year.

Although in the brief history of her career she has interjected the whimsical (a red-spangled wrestler's top) and the reverent (a t-shirt with a fluttery sleeve worthy of a Patou gown), the 2008 collection draws heavily on the idea of Germanic jeunesse brulée. The strongly Teutonic vibe to these designs is carried out in razor-sharp collars and functionality, working a reductive, neutral palette that appears to endow the items with an interesting anonymity, almost as if they were uniforms.

Shorts are one of the most important ideas for 2008. Although Euler cuts a nicely conservative, traditional pair, here she continues her affinity for adapting both wrestling and boxing garments into streetwear, a touch that would certainly prove viable for the rich wastrel on a buying spree that Euler had in mind when designing the collection. The athletic references also seem poised to recall a national pride in competitive sport.

Euler is interesting on many levels, not the least of which is her ability to refer without being sentimental. When she works with a concept, she takes it to its purest form, free of ornamentation. Her inspirations are many, judging from the handful of collections she has produced. The first spring/summer collection lacked the fixity of what she showed for 2008; her ideas here are carried throughout the set. Some Hamptons-ready preppiness in the earlier work has been replaced by clothing with a far stronger signature.

Note must be made of the through-line from the fall/winter campaign to the spring one. A strong continuity exists between these two and the extension from one to the other is a natural, organic one. This is a new designer who is quickly strengthening and refining her vision while including a good deal of personal idiosyncrasy of a type that too often fails to cross the pond and make it stateside.

Link: Carola Euler