Spain : Women look modern in Armand Basi S/S collection

Spanish fashion label Armand Basi launches Womenswear S/S 2008 collection. This season is all about contradictions where fabrics are concerned; smooth versus textured, hard versus soft, natural versus man-made, matt versus shiny. Contrasting concepts that create a modern look when placed side by side.
At the forefront are tactile surfaces with fringed, coloured raffia, filmy bubbles, blistered cloques and puckered silks. These textured clothes are combined with their complete opposites, flat densely woven cotton twills, basket woven paper and structured silk nettings.
The masculine and feminine face-off throughout the collection. There are romantic touches of ruffles and flounces fighting against stricter-shaped masculine silhouettes.
Geometric design and Japanese pattern-cutting techniques are the driving forces behind the development of the new shapes.
The colour palette moves through off-white, concrete greys to inky black that play with fluorescent shades of orange, green and pink.
The collection brings together influences as diverse as samurai warriors, Jackson Pollack, minimalism and OTT excess, combining the beauty of the handmade and the coldness of the synthetic.
"It's all in the mix" and it is this mix that gives the Spring/Summer 2008 collection an urban playground feel.