Marlon Gobel has always been a romantic. Season after season, he has worked to remind us of some of the small pleasures of the spectacle of fashion that have been lost in an increasingly corporatized world. For Spring 2013, that aim became even grander, as he explained afterward that what he aimed to recapture was a sense of awe and wonderment that he feels we have forgotten. Making reference to the expansion of our own horizons during the late-20th-century epoch of great space exploration—and with a tribute to the late Neil Armstrong—Gobel played with colors and fabrics in a way that revealed them as something new. There was his trademark shine, here shot through with scattered bits of light, like stars lost in a dark firmament. There were sunglasses completely encrusted in rhinestones. There was Chad White’s shimmering space blanket jacket. Gobel also showed his customary bright, eclectic suits in eye-popping prints and rich colors, at times accessorized with belts and capes composed of circles reminiscent of the rings in a solar system model. And as a skirt came down the runway for the finale with a burst of rocket fire printed across the front, it was the perfect endnote for a collection all about grandeur and glory.
text: Jonathan Shia
Photos by Kirt Reynolds for models.com
