Dolls are having a bit of a moment, what with Marc Jacobs and John Galliano having recently taken those porcelain female figurines for a spin. At his London Fashion Week debut, so did Georgian designer George Keburia — but his eponymous label offered a fresh take, toughening up delicate dollies with hardcore fabrics and militaristic panache.
“The inspiration was mainly broken dolls, because I didn’t have enough time to play with them in my childhood, I think. So I tried to mix many fabrics and many different layers to it,” Keburia said after the show.
Tailored drummer jackets came in snuggly wool, nubby bouclé, houndstooth trimmed with crinkly vinyl, and in thick cotton hemmed with flouncy tulle. Keburia’s adolescent longing to dress up dolls came through in jackets, tops, dresses that experimented with shape and proportion, their elongated sleeves reminiscent of a little kid trying on grown-up clothes.
Those cinched bodices exploded into wild bubble skirts composed of puffs of feathers trapped beneath ghostly lace. There were pants, too, detailed with cartoonishly oversize buttons, as well as covetable cropped capris, trimmed with ruffs of shearling and lace.
Silky evening dresses with gauzy gloves sewn onto them capped off the show. Keburia’s dolls were all done up for a night out on the town — a charming and invigorating entrée into the London fashion scene.
