HISTORY, SURF & SAND BLEND TOGETHER IN THIS BEAUTIFULLY BREEZY COLLECTION
Story by Odessa Paloma Parker
Photos by Mark Binks
Fresh from being featured on the GenArt runway in New York a few weeks ago, the Gordon sisters were finally able to showcase their entire 34 piece Spring/Summer line to an audience during The Collections.
“It was an amazing experience and we were really honoured to be a part of it,” says Parris Gordon of the GenArt experience. “We’ll definitely keep in contact with everyone from that group.” Chloé Gordon added that they were only able to show 12 looks at GenArt, “So we were really excited to bring it back to Toronto just so we could show all the work that we did.”
For S/S13, Chloé Comme Parris (a label known for its equal measure of downtown attitude and artful polish), showed floaty blouses in pretty pastels, chic knits in neutrals, and a few menswear-style pieces (vests, jackets and trousers) that run the gamut of style and will surely appeal to anyone with even the most remote sense of sophistication. Leather lent an edge that tempered the pieces from veering to the saccharine side.
Citing two very different influences for the season – Assyrian costume (B.C.), and 1970s Venice Beach skate and surf culture – the sisters fused the contrast ingeniously. “We took all the detailing from Assyrian culture, and the vibe, the cut, the fit from Venice Beach, and blended the two,” Chloé states. There was one other artistic influence in the collection – that being the oversized floating floral that was created by their mother, Eve, when she was in university. “It breathed new life into something that was a hidden treasure for us.”
The jewellery, created by Parris (Chloé handles the garment design) enhanced the soft lines with elongated shapes and minimalist detailing. “We source inspiration together,” Parris says of how the whole collection comes together. “Then we design, edit [and] sample separately…but when it comes together it works.”
Much like the blending of aesthetics and inspirations for their collections, the Gordon sisters’ process of collaboration certainly does work out well.
