Hasta La Ideas

Fair trade meets vintage florals for a fashion resurrection

Led by ’90s revivalism, a particular floral trend has proliferated on runways these past few seasons, many directly inspired by the fabrics of heritage brand Laura Ashley and its English garden-feeling flower prints. Thanks to a collaboration with fellow U.K. clothing label People Tree, the 57-year-old label is undergoing a reawakening of its own this season with a collection of limited-run pieces in prints sourced from the company’s archives.

Available March 2011 as part of People Tree’s spring collection, the nine-piece organic cotton collection offers up fetching floral basics—including a pocketed a-line skirt, a short swingy sundress, pleated shorts and a jumpsuit—in colors reworked from the ’70s to match the lineup’s more youthful, modern silhouettes.

As part of its ongoing designer collaboration series, People Tree is also teaming up with contemporary British print designer Orla Kiely to create two cotton-printed hobo bags, available later in the season.

The Laura Ashley collection spans $80-155 and will sell stateside and in the U.K. from People Tree.

Following its recent stateside collaboration with the chain store Target, Liberty of London continues its resurgence by partnering with more alluring retailers around the world. In addition to a one-month pop-up with Parisian boutique Merci, and a four-piece handkerchief collection for Japan’s Tokyo-based department store, Isetan, Liberty’s most recent fusion is a limited edition spring/summer capsule line for the Milanese concept boutique 10 Corso Como.

The graphic-heavy 26-piece collection, available online as well as at Corso Como’s storefront and Liberty’s London flagship, includes apparel and accessories for both women and men in an updated version of Liberty’s iconic Ianthe print.

Corso Como’s founder and director Carla Sozzani commissioned the American artist (and a close personal friend) Kris Ruhs to reinterpret the Art Nouveau print for a decidedly more psychedelic effect than many of the classic florals gracing this spring’s collections. The resulting fresh and kaleidoscopic eyeful of swirls and teardrop shapes looks just right for warm days ahead.

Button-down shirts, dresses and ties in Italian cotton poplin, as well as swimwear and silk scarves, canvas totes and leather wallets, all come in color schemes of yellow, pink, and cream or black-and-white.

Pick it up online at Liberty of London and 10 Corso Como.

Bangkok-born artist Korakrit Arunanondchai originally created his wildly-colorful, limited-edition clothing label Kora-Krit as an extension of his digitally-influenced art. Working chiefly with silkscreen printing, Arunanondchai intended for visitors to his gallery shows to wear the pieces for a fully immersive and visually seamless experience.

The RISD grad (now based in Brooklyn, NY) takes up various themes in his work, but considers them all to have a shared feeling. He sees his layered compositions as a fortunate glimpse of a fleeting moment, like “a bunch of kids playing basketball” who appear to fight and dance as they bump into each other on the court. But in Arunanondchai’s amped-up world, the scene plays out at an even faster tempo and is possibly “happening in the sky.”

The current collection borrows strong graphic shapes found in video games, particularly the letters X and O, as well as triangle and square shapes. Printed on neon fabrics, the choice links the apparel back to his black light art installation on the same subject.

The forthcoming project, dubbed “Thrs” for the typical gallery opening night, takes Arunanondchai back to a simple black, white and gray palette for series of intricate prints that explore computer-generated gallery spaces. (Pictured above.)

A fan of Hieronymus Bosch, the phantasmagorical world Arunanondchai creates has something in common with contemporaries like Ryan McGinness, who similarly makes densely-layered imagery that toes the line between organization and chaos. On the fashion side, the artist’s futuristic prints connect him to those seen in the most recent collections by Proenza Schouler and the late Alexander McQueen (also a fellow Bosch admirer). His passion for creating an unabbreviated universe has led to multi-media installations that transcend physical boundaries, as well as projects as tangible as a laptop for Dell.

Kora-Krit sells online or from La Forêt in Tokyo with prices starting at $29.