Awarded
Corina González
Womenswear collection 'Argot' (diploma work)
Fashion Design
Corina Gonzalez
Corina González
Jury report
Not for the fainthearted
Narrow hips? Shoulders too wide? Not in male fashion, as created by the designer Corina González. Instead of following the usual, familiar lines of the male body, she reinvents the masculine silhouette. Rather than unduly wide shoulders, she creates sweaters that are cut out almost down to the navel. Most men would be afraid of looking a bit too feminine. But even with a well-muscled figure this cut-out cannot fail to make the shoulders look narrow when they are presented in this way. A loose-knit jacket with a hood looks similarly unusual, allowing a generous amount of skin to be seen. Not for the fainthearted, in other words, but conceived for 'fashionconscious outlaws' (González).
The 2005 autumn/winter collection is called 'Argot', and was created as a diploma submission at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Basel. The fashion designer borrows from the cool Hip-Hop style, which she skillfully translates into polished designer language. González tailors trousers with the crotch almost at knee-level. Conventional legwear makes the male hips look slimmer, but this creative fashion designer does the opposite: she makes the hip section look wider by using horizontal stripes at this point. This collection, with its bizarrely exaggerated formal language, is tailored to suit 'dissipated, nonchalant city-dwellers', as the designer writes.
And the wearer mustn't show any fear about the mix of materials either: the three-quarterlength trousers, for example, are available in lamb's leather, cuffs are knitted, there are striped wrist-warmers and lurex trousers. Even the suit, usually a man's most conventional set of garments, is in a shiny metallic fabric. The designer presents these breaches of the rules skilfully, and it is delightful to be able to say that this is anti-fashion that can be worn. As the photographs of models show: courageous men cut a dash in clothes like this as well.
Peter Stohler
Biography
Corina González
Born in
1980
Education
Designerin FH in Modedesign
