There’s a childlike wonder to the worlds that Natasha Zinko transports us to every season. For S/S 24 it was a hyperbole of summer camp, evoking the adventures of the adolescent imagination. This season Zinko looked to the stars with a collection rife with references to the sci-fi canon, giving a literal meaning to today’s Space Age revival.
At East London’s Truman Brewery, the concrete show space was the perfect setting for the designer’s intergalactic inspirations. As the show started the bass-heavy soundtrack was fused with heavy breathing. Backstage after the show, Zinko told the press the anxiety-inducing effect was inspired by the ending of the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and the signature sound of Star Wars’ Darth Vadar.
‘I was looking at the 1960s when people wanted to escape the planet,’ Zinko says backstage after the show. While the futurist fashions of the decade have been slowly bubbling to the sartorial surface in the last few years, Zinko’s A/W 24 collection was a lot more Kubrick than Courrèges.
The opening look was a stark white boiler suit reminiscent of the classic space suit worn by Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11. The silhouette mirrored its inspiration with bulbous shoulders hunched forward. An awkward gesture of bodily restraint. '60 years later and nothing’s really happened. We’re still here’.
Zinko’s perchance for the utilitarian rings strongly in strappy bodysuits, athletic wear and padded bomber jackets. The layers underneath an astronaut's space suit were revealed as models walked down the runway in cutout thermals and white briefs stamped with ‘Natasha Zinko Originals’ on the waistband. An obvious nod to Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley at the climax of Ridley Scott’s Alien, where she dons little more than a white vest and Y-fronts.
Showcasing the diversity of femininity, Zinko seamlessly goes from the utilitarian to the hyper-feminine, reimagining the silhouette of the Space Age pioneers before her. The bulbous jackets that define the collection are cut slimmer, finished with high collars and paired with mini skirts. In bubblegum pink or cream, the look evokes the campy high-fashion of Jean Paul Gaultier’s costumes for Luc Besson's The Fifth Element.
Other evening wear propositions include a Cardin-esque A-line dress that features a three-dimensional ring, evoking the spaceship's porthole and the notion of looking to the great unknown. Like the original '60s space age, for Zinko it's optimism that drives her creativity. While it's safe to say that the contemporary fashion landscape has been anything but kind to today's creatives, Zinko's confidence in facing the unknown future is reflected in designs that transcend Earth's gravity. 'We need hope,' she says.