Fernanda Yamamoto Spring/Summer 2014

For her womenswear collection for Spring/Summer 2014 (shown during the latest edition of São Paulo Fashion Week in March 2013), Brazilian fashion designer Fernanda Yamamoto found inspiration in how women were portrayed and treated in western societies during the 1950s. To this end, the interior realm of the home (and namely the kitchen) played a crucial influence in the collection’s shapes and designs: aprons were visible in the folded and layered fabrics whereas the floral and check patterns found in kitchen towels and table cloths were appropriated in a very literal manner, sometimes in three-dimensional objects (such as cubes, crystals, stones and plastic and leather flowers applied to garments). Fabrics featured included leather, cotton jacquard, linen, laminated organza, knitwear and chiffon in a palette that comprised traditional blues, pinks, yellows, greens, purple and beige.

Despite the predominant influence of a 1950s aesthetic anchored by the sphere of female domesticity, Yamamoto resorted to a few 1960s retro-futuristic allusions in the design of some of the dresses. If this variation might have been a conscious decision to introduce a more socially progressive dimension of womanhood in contrast to the stereotypical image of the housewife, the final result was not clear. Regardless of the merit of her original conceptual intentions, Fernanda Yamamoto’s choices of colours and shapes were resolutely brave, even if they were not the most appreciated in the context of all collections on display during São Paulo Fashion Week.