Petting Peter Pilotto

Ironic how the clothes and accessories that draw my attention are, by and large, those with vibrant colours, wacky cuts and lots of design elements; whereas those that are hung orderly in my cupboard are simple, fail-safe monotone pieces that can, by and large, hold off any sort of deadly scrutiny and withstand all torrential rain and ferocious wind.

So.

Quite naturally, when I saw Peter Pilotto‘s jumper from afar, shining under the soft dreamy spotlight of Selfridges, I had to pelt across the room to touch and stroke the ribbed colourful prints. And of course, in such epiphanic moment, it’s the prescribed duty of a boyfriend to roll his eyes and express his frustration.

“Look at this!”, I said, and swiftly pulled up more pieces on the rack to coax the fashion curiosity out of the man (which 9.5 times out of 10 are as difficult as drawing eye-liner drunk). “These are not normal. Look at them. They are like…wow!”, breathless and overjoyed, I tried to converse in his language, a system where espadrilles, peep-toes and pointy heels are all classified as SHOES and a boyfriend-shirt is taken literally to mean HIS SHIRT. 

It must be my lucky day or that Peter Pilotto is really genius, that was the 0.5 time he walked over and actually leafed through the clothes. 

In case you are interested, this is the one that I passionately and lecherously held, touched, caressed and cooed over.

One that gives a bodily form to all my current favourite elements – turtleneck, colour-blocking and ribbed texture. I was mesmerised by their very clever use of colours and the pixel pattern in the centre. From one angle, they look so worldly like a herd of llamas; from another, the lines just look very digitised and futuristic.

Soon after I got home, I turned the Internet upside down and searched high and low for more Peter Pilotto-s. It somehow didn’t strike me as a surprise that behind this young, fun and fearless brand, is a pair of charming duo – Pilotto, a half-Austrian half-Italian and De Vos, a half-Belgian half-Peruvian – for most of their designs carry the influence of traditional Amerindian geometric patterns, knitting, weft and weaving.  

For the psychedelic and evocative ss15, they paired up with Swarovski, which embellished their laser cut dresses, and Nicholas Kirkwood made their shoes. 

These look like a multicoloured, hazy dream in the wilderness of 2050. And how truly splendid it would be to don on these beautiful clothes and pose away on the peak of Machu Picchu! I’m sure the effect would be stunning and I promise, no, I’m not high. These clothes are the ones that anybody would walk pass, pause and turn back for a second glance. Possibly, a third, fourth or just never move their eyes away. Ever.

So really, nothing is ever too much.

Image Sources: A Magazine Curated By, Net-a-Porter, Official Instagram of Peter Pilotto

Let’s imagine if I were given a carte blanche to replenish my wardrobe (and soul), I would snap up the colour-block jumper in a heartbeat, dig out a last season’s Jérôme Dreyfuss Johan shoulder bag, retain a space for Nicholas Kirkwood, then in the most ballsy and dauntless fashion, pull a sleek ponytail and throw on a pair of Anna-Karin Karlsson When Trouble Came to Town.

If we aren’t scared of clothes, wouldn’t dressing up be a whirlwind of fun?

Collage: AlexandraLuella / Image source: Net-a-Porter

With love x