“Insiders”, NOM*d’s Summer 09 Collection, is a roster of garments as proud to wear their insides out as their outsides in.
For NOM*d the road to something new always begins in familiar places and “Insiders” is no exception. In true NOM*d tradition, the signature print on dresses this season is an original viscose georgette inspired by the pattern of a vintage men’s scarf. Mannish stripes and houndstooth linings are also important to the collection.
As well as an awareness of history, womenswear continues to demonstrate the playfulness of form and construction that has come to define the label, with a few new twists and turns just for summer. Under NOM*d’s auspices the nylon petticoats that once insulated a generation of southern matrons have been transformed. Tie-dyed using traditional methods, they’ve been chopped, seamed and upended and finally zipped together to create dresses and skirts that wittily acknowledge their original provenance as insulators while demanding to be shown as outerwear.
Similarly, the tuxedos and waistcoats of good gentlemen past are wittily retooled and reworked in contemporary fabrics such as rayon and viscose, the jackets cropped and shorn; the waistcoats doubled over and irreverently attached to shirts. Waistcoats and jackets occasionally wear their zips proudly on the outside as badges of honour, a testament to the craft that went into resurrecting these clothes from the past, playing on their old associations, and remaking them to tell new stories.
Humour is a characteristic of every NOM*d collection and it informs "Insiders” throughout. The construction of every piece contains a wry nod to its original incarnation; whether as Nana’s underslip or a treasured souvenir from Cliff Richard in concert. A screen printed t-shirt encourages all of us to wear NOM*d’s non-carbon footprints on our sleeves.
NOM*d do not design for a mythical fashion cognoscenti, but rather for an everyday individual, albeit one who requires a necessary degree of thought and comfort in every piece. Such people don’t need to be told what to wear, how to think or what to find funny. They’re individuals: people who know their own mind. Sometimes they’re known as Outsiders. So. A collection called "Insiders” designed for Outsiders..? The joke’s on NOM*d with this one. Don’t worry, they can take it.
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