Brooklyn: Designer Giovanna Flores has launched her new fall collection inspired by mops, featuring vibrant textiles and innovative designs. With an aesthetic that channels deconstruction and exploration, her pieces have received acclaim and popularity, further highlighted by a celebrity wearing her creations on the red carpet.
Giovanna Flores has unveiled her latest fall collection, drawing upon an unexpected inspiration—mops. During a recent discussion at her Brooklyn apartment, Flores detailed her creative process, stating, “I’ve worked with rope before and I’ve always thought these mops were pretty, so I was playing around with them on the mannequin.” She meticulously experimented with the fabric strips used to hold the mop vines together, substituting them with various textiles to produce textured embellishments on garments such as skirts and cardigan collars, reminiscent of a domestic interpretation of a fur collar.
The vibrant infusion of colours in her collection was also influenced by a discovery of 20 bolts of vividly printed silk at a favourite shop located upstate, which typically showcases quilting fabric. “If it was only one roll I probably wouldn’t have cared for it,” she noted, “but all of them together were really cool.” The resulting array featured paisleys, tile florals, tonal jacquards, stripes, and polka dots that, while seemingly chaotic, coalesced beautifully under Flores’s distinctive eye for form and shape. This aesthetic approach appears to pay homage to the early collections of renowned designer Dries Van Noten.
Highlight pieces from the collection included a halter crafted from five different printed silks and a ribbed knit capelet that elegantly enveloped the shoulders. Among other eye-catching items were a bright red fleece wrap sweater adorned with denim fringe and a series of collaged knit pieces. Flores expressed her fondness for “shrunken knits,” stating, “I thought it would be cool to collect them, you know people throw them in the wash and then they shrink,” adding texture to her designs. One particular striped yellow long-sleeve sweater featured a striking incision of red and black, whilst the lower section of another blue and white knit sweater appeared to be derived from the hem of a white long-sleeve t-shirt.
Flores’ design philosophy embraces a process of deconstruction and exploration, positing that clothing emerges from a state of “nothing.” “The idea with clothes is that they come from nothing; you start with a mannequin that represents the naked human form and you build upon it,” she elaborated, emphasising a sense of excavation in her work. Each fabric swatch and pattern piece evolves, reflecting a journey from one state to another—the inevitable outcome of a particular sweater, dress, or skirt. “I don’t see my work as quirky at all,” she stated. “I just want to make beautiful stuff that makes people feel good.”
Sales of Flores’s creations have taken place through Instagram and her website, supplemented by several in-person shopping events hosted at her studio. She reported, “The response has been really great,” further illustrated by the fact that actress Chloë Sevigny has already adorned the red carpet in one of her dresses, signifying a positive reception of her expanding brand.
Source: Noah Wire Services
