MYKITA AND BERNHARD WILLHELM A/W 2011
“The sun is shining in blue, brown, green and rosé.”
VIOLETTA, the first design collaboration in the LITE collection from fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm and MYKITA, celebrates a new contemporary psychedelic style inspired by Sophia Loren, the “Miss Eleganza” of the 1960s…
The first frame boasts delicate gold rims and teardrop-oval lenses which gently fade from a green glow to a rosé colour above the cheekbones. In the second version, likewise made of light stainless steel, the blue-to-cognac colour scheme is complemented by a matt-silver frame.
Willhelm has modernised the classic colour gradients used by MYKITA with unconventional colour combinations and a bold form where the cosmetic lenses constitute visual makeup; the upper colour gleams in green or blue like eye shadow, while the lower section emphasises the cheeks as a blush would. Depending on how the veiwer looks through the VIOLETTA model, the world has an intensely blue, brown, green or rose-coloured look…
“There is a sunspot on the glass, blinding my vision. I see you in the penumbra with a halo shining golden. Close up in the stark unobstructed daylight I might see the flaws, the inconsistencies, the unpleasant truths. I would rather dream about you at a safe distance.” Jacki Apple, Bernhard Willhelm A/W collection 2011.
By Lucy Mclean
