Todd Thomas Full Gestalt Collection Preview and Party hosted by Debbie Harry (090407)

Todd Thomas Full Gestalt Collection Preview and Party hosted by Debbie Harry

Todd Thomas Full Gestalt
Spring 2008 Collection Preview
Installation and Cocktail Party Reception
Hosted by Debbie Harry

Sponsored by Going.com and 60 Thompson

A60 at 60 Thompson Hotel NYC (8PM)
Tuesday, September 4th at 8 o'clock
RSVP at going.com/toddthomas
Presented by Mr Patrick Duffy LLC
mrpatrickduffy.com

Here's your chance to attend a legitimate fashion soiree hosted by none other than Debbie Harry at the swanky A60 at the Thompson Hotel. And yeah, you're actually invited.

About Todd Thomas:

Todd Thomas unveils something testy with his Spring/Summer 08 Collection

Based on the Rorschach Inkblot, Gestalt and SAT tests, Todd Thomas has created a new collection of mainly dresses, allowing a graphic stream of consciousness to inform his subliminal and humorous designs. In the process he encountered many unexpected coincidences that seemed to reveal an underlying link between cultural and psychological phenomena. When blown up and printed, for example, the existential and experiential Gestalt symbols bear an uncanny resemblance to African mud print textiles. This was entirely accidental and it delighted him. The random polka dot pattern of the SAT test drove Thomas to include an accompanying Number 2 pencil print, unable to resist the cliché. “There was something very serendipitous in this whole process,” he says. “The silhouettes themselves were driven by the evolution of the print and the design of the textiles,” which are mainly silk, stretch georgette, crepe back satin, silk cotton jersey and silk cotton twill. In looking at all the prints together, he was reminded of matter prints from the depression era. There is not just a revisiting of the 30s and 40s here, but an aspect of 2008 revisiting the 80s revisiting the 30s and 40s, all of it endowed with a very 21st century global currency. “There is definitely an element of the urban African women you see in West Midtown who wear those beautiful mixed-textured wraps,” he says. Those wraps had a lot of influence on the shapes and combination of the prints within the collection. The dress silhouettes are a bit longer than the current trend prescribes, less revealing and cut in modest shapes. Thomas plays with shape and form in allowing a single garment both tightness and draping at once, as well as combinations of prints and textures within one garment. “I like the multilayered references, where everything is cyclical,” he says. A particular inspiration behind the creation of this collection is Joni Mitchell’s 1977 double album, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter. “The layers and amalgams of global beats and textures and the haunting narration of the lyrics and the keen social observations and the beauty of it as a whole album,” Thomas says, “reinforced ideas I was having about what I was making for this collection. Each piece was part of a whole and together they’re really powerful.”

Deborah Harry is one of his biggest supporters and a favorite client. On New Year’s Eve 2005 she wore a particularly stunning creation which Thomas made specifically for her show in Edinburgh, a classic tartan kilt and cape and a leather bodice adorned with multiple strands of crystals and chains. He also created the black tuxedo and pencil skirt she wore for her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.