Domingo Rodriguez Menswear Spring/Summer 2013

Domingo Rodriguez showed his menswear collection for Spring/Summer 2013 on Friday 15 June 2012 in the cavernous and yet intimate surroundings of the Vaults at the Royal Society of Arts as part of an initiative by London College of Fashion (LCF) to showcase the work of recent graduates of Menswear. The event was well orchestrated to sit alongside the inaugural London Collections: Men (the first showcase of its kind in London to celebrate emerging and established menswear brands) and attracted guests such as fashion journalist Diane Pernet, alumnus and Chairman of the British Fashion Council Harold Tillman and fashion illustrator David Downton.

Upon graduating from Liverpool John Moores University in 2008, Rodriguez won the Menswear Award at Graduate Fashion Week. He then went on to secure the Harold Tillman Scholarship for his Masters course at LCF. His graduate MA collection for Autumn/Winter 2010 was scouted by asos.com for an exclusive capsule collection and his Spring/Summer 2011 menswear collection was presented during Paris Men’s Fashion Week in June 2010 as one of Esquire magazine’s ‘7 Brilliant Brits’. Domingo gained experience working for designers Kim Jones and Carolyn Massey and collaborated with Phi-Nom Leather, Saga fur and Kopenhagen fur.

For Spring/Summer 2013, Rodriguez presented an elegant minimalist collection that reinterpreted sports apparel in a very sophisticated way by mixing fabrics, patterns and textures such as cotton and leather with knitwear and lace and optical stripes in deceivingly simple and yet extremely elegant designs. As in previous collections, the talented young designer layered grosgrain ribbon trims of variable widths in the front and back of t-shirts and tank tops. The softness of the fabrics was stressed by contrast with the hard metal cases of backpacks and brogue shoes that, stylish as they looked, might not have been the best option for the runway show. Nevertheless, the refrained palette of black, grey and cream was well chosen for the garments an

d Rodriguez’s stunning crocheted cardigan and t-shirts layered over shorts beautifully tapered just as they ended at the knee really deserved the applause that they got from the audience.