GCDS presents Fall-Winter 22

What scares you? Is the fear of something real different from the fear of something imagined? Either way, fear is a powerful, tantalizing feeling that can propel into action or paralyze in non action. It takes a lot of imagination to let fear unleash the soul instead of eating it, as the saying goes: the imagination one finds in literature; the bursts of fantasy one can enjoy in fashion. That’s the fear we are talking about here. Positive fear. Beautifying fear. Fashionable fear.

Fashion, for GCDS, is, first and foremost, an expression of joy, filled with glitter and sparkle. It is an expression of fantasy that entices upward feelings, sprinkled with laughter. Stale times like the ones we are living openly call for such unabashed expressionism. All times actually call for it.

Fashion has the power to transform: it gives body to a fantasy and molds the body to such fantasy. What if Dracula, the very epitome of the fearful horror story, turned into a glamorous affair of candy pinks and glowing greens, shiny latex, sexiness and fang heels? This is entirely licit, in the GCDS world, and this is what happens today on the catwalk, inside a former church, on a ground that once was a lazaret. The dark story elements are all there, and yet it is a cheerful one, radiant with color, sparkling with glamour and encrusted with stones, curving in hourglass shapes and skintight bodysuits. Blooming with flowers, too. Swarming with Hello Kitty prints and Bram Stoker frills mixed with GCDS’ signature sartorial blazers, accessorized with comma bags and thighhigh boots. Oh, and Clarks mules and loafers.

That’s the power of fashion: making different elements come together in one whole fantasy.

Glam is the glossy, catchy coating to it all. According to the dictionary, glamour is an attractive and exciting quality, but it also stands for magic. Is there anything more magical than projecting outwards a sparkle, suffused with sassiness? Isn’t fashion at its best when it takes the form of a glowing drama, no dark feelings involved?

What scares you, in the end, turns you into a wonderful, jolly creature. At GCDS, at least.