The Thrill of the Chase: How a fantastic Jacket led me to Bryce Aime and a his SS2012 Collection

Photo: Florencia Da Valle© (Do not use without permission)

I never thought chasing a fantastic jacket, would eventually lead me to meet its designer and attend his private show of his Spring Summer 2012 collection during London Fashion Week.

Photo: Florencia Da Valle© (Do not use without permission)

One summer evening in London I went with a friend to Shoreditch despite not being too crazy about looking at old smelly clothes at Brick Lane that some people like to call vintage shops. We went into a quite nice store carrying previous collections of very nice designer labels, (new clothes, just not the latest collection, no musty stuff there) and some beautifully structured garments caught my eye, they were made by a designer called Bryce Aime. I fell in love with everything instantly, specially a black sharp-shouldered jacket that made you look crazy thin. However, I was "brilliant" enough to leave it for later and when I came back the place was closed and it only opened every two months or so. I freaked out completely but luckily the people of the store gave me the designer's studio contact details and I managed to track down and buy the jacket. I liked his work so much I talked to his PR about doing a story about him and I ended up at the designer's Spring Summer 2012 Collection event at the Penthouse of the Mayfair Hotel.

Aime, who has already dressed Rihanna, was so busy chatting with so many people that wanted his attention, it was very hard to find a moment to talk to him. Suddenly he walks past me, stops,  turns back, points and says, "hey, that jacket is mine". He made a "come here" sign with his hand so I would join him with other friends he was talking to.

At first it struck me that he was french, I wondered why would a Frenchman come to London to do fashion. He had initially come to London to study English and later enrolled in Fine Arts at Central Saint Martins where he discovered his interest for fashion. He has worked on his own label since he graduated in 2005.  

Bryce could not believe the jacket fitted me so well. He said it looked like as if it had been custom made for me. He had probably designed it for me and didn't know it.  Curiously though, this is pretty much all we talked about fashion, my initial idea was to interview him, but he is so cultured about so many topics we ended up talking about everything but clothes!

However, a designer doesn't need to talk much about his work when the clothes do, besides talking to a designer about n'importe quoi sometimes tells you even more. Someone's view on certain subjects can give you a better insight on their work than typical cliché (what were you inspired in?) questions. Fashion is not an isolated element, it is always in an intricate relation with it's surroundings.

The Spring Summer 2012 collection was shown in live photoshoot  at the Penthouse Suite. The models came out of the elevator and entered the room were the pictures were taken. It was a bit hard to squeeze in, but I managed to do so for a while to take a look.

The entire monochrome black and white collection was beautifully executed in architectural origami-like dresses that played with volume at the hips and shoulders while accentuating the waist. It had a very modern sense of femininity. The sheer quality of some of the materials and a chiffon skirt contrasted the rigid shapes creating a subtle balance.

Structure is always a key element in Aime's work and looking back at past collections, I can see he's no stranger to color and eye catching prints; however, this time around he seems to have solely focused on form and texture. Precisely his excellent treatment of form is what led me to chase that jacket in the first place. I know I'll be chasing a lot more of his pieces in the future.

-Graciela Martin

 http://bryce-aime.com/

Photo: Florencia Da Valle© (Do not use without permission)

Photo: Florencia Da Valle© (Do not use without permission)

Photo: Florencia Da Valle© (Do not use without permission)

Photo: Florencia Da Valle© (Do not use without permission)

Photo: Florencia Da Valle© (Do not use without permission)