Granted, Lobo has been coordinating other people’s collections for what’s probably the equivalent of a century in fashion years, styling the Australian Fashion Week runway shows of more designers than most people can probably name and also founding local fashion bible PagesDigital. And former Derek Lam design director Martin is no fledgling himself, boasting a work history that also includes stints at Alberta Ferretti and Jean Paul Gaultier.
The two met at Sydney’s UTS design school in the late 90s, where it is imagined that they bonded over a mutual love of shirts with fine tailoring and dramatic collars rather than faded plaid and Nirvana badges. And 15 years after going their separate ways, they’ve joined forces with an impressive lucidity.
TOME’s AW 2012 collection continues in the label’s contemporary utilitarian vein. Their main jam is clearly menswear-inspired shirting and structured silhouettes, with stiff A-line skirts and statement collars picking up where their last collection left off. But that delicateness is offset by sportswear-inspired anoraks, beefy turtlenecks, and leather gloves that could look at home on a dominatrix, though they look way better on a shirt buttoned all the way to the top. Colors range from harsh black-and-white to rustic faded floral, and are modernized by a dazzling copper cut from the same cloth as a street style photographer’s wet dream.
Images courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar
