G.V.G.V.: A/W2011

While summer may have just come to greet us here in Toronto, I’m secretly wishing for fall. Mainly because it is spring that I enjoy most and this humidity is seriously about to set me in to a rage no one want to see coming. But there is one other reason I look forward to fall and it comes in the form of Japanese label G.V.G.V.

Aptly titled “youth cult” G.V.G.V.’s latest autumn/winter 2011 collection is certainly a throwback to my brit-pop and punk youth. Having graduated from Kuwasawa Design School, the designer simply known as Mug, has been developing her brand since 1999 and has managed to develop quite the cult following in her native Japan. With this latest offering I believe Mug’s skill lies in her ability to combine inherently British elements such as tweeds, tartans, and boarding school charm with quintessentially Japanese design finishing. There seems to be a nod to Rei Kawakubo and Vivienne Westwood, but just a touch cleaner and perhaps far easier for consumers to break down and wear everyday.

Here luxe-leather button down shirts are paired with tartan minis, and frizzy ponytails topped with bowlers. Wide legged wool pants come with cross body suspenders, sweeping maxi skirts mixed with shearling, leopard and more leather. Combine all of this with impeccable styling and you’ve got me in a total lust tizzy. Having collaborated with Black Market to create the stand out leather jacket with white slogan slashing, this collection certainly is a leap from her previous s/s 2011 sixties boho leanings, leaving me to wonder what hazy memory of fashions past she will whip up next.