Jena.Theo ‘Hell’s Angel’ at LFW

Jena.Theo’s ready-to-wear collection brought us back to nature. The duo’s collection, entitled ‘Hell’s Angel’, celebrated ‘the true Jena.Theo woman, strong and assertive’ and her connection to the world around her.

Muted colours and fabrics like cow hide fastened the collection to the earth. The pieces were delicate and feminine, but toughened slightly with block heels, body-contouring stitching and visible zips. Sheer fabric was combined with soft leather to create a look that referenced the natural environment without falling into a hippy bracket, but maintaining a fresh and modern appeal. Colours were sophisticated and soft; grey, gold, black, beige, cream, burnt orange and brown enhanced the designers’ inspiration from the natural world.

The collection was embellished with beading and embroidery, detailing interweaving flowers, insects, skulls and reptiles on the fabric. The prints were the work of the artist O.Two and had a tattooist feel to them. One dress featured a skull with a snake slithering through its mouth and up around the cranium, something which would have been gruesome had it not been delicately printed onto sheer silk; all the elements of the natural world are celebrated, from the pretty petals of a flower to the dark inevitability of death. Perhaps it is this all encompassing embrace of nature that lead Jena.Theo to describe their inspirational woman as ‘darkly beautiful and formidably alluring’; life and death are both unavoidable parts of the collection and both equally fascinating.

The ebbs and flows of the natural world are present in the flowing fabric of the dresses and the lightness of the materials; these are pieces that delight in their connection to nature and seem free from too much manmade meddling. It is these details and the touch of darkness that make the ‘Hell’s Angel’ collection stand apart from another flowery Spring/Summer presentation.

London Fashion Week took place September 14 to 18, 2012.