We were apparently off the reservation on this one because both i-D and The Fader ran pieces on Lukhanyo Mdingi, a 23-year-old South African designer who has turned out some fucking wild lookbooks recently. I don't blame either of them because this shit is damn pleasing to look at. The clothes aren't bad either. Lookbooks are a tricky aspect of the current fashion industry structure. It's vital to show people how the clothes look at their core, but it can be boring or off-putting to just stand up a model on a white background and stand there motionless. You have to provide some dimension and context to them for it to really work. There has to be some balance between beauty and information about the clothing and Mdingi seems to nail it pretty well in my eyes. There's obviously a craft behind the game here. You can see his S/S 16 collection here titled "Taintless." The model's skins were painted for a navy tone. The clothes are also all blue and come in designs that mix pleats and some military design details. Very cool stuff. Setting the clothes against the blue of the water and the tan of the sand creates a very striking look. Read through some of his processes and ideas in the interviews linked above and take a look at some of his previous, just as beautiful collections, on his website.
