O how positively surprised I was when Swiss womenswear designer Sara Vidas told me her Spring / Summer 2012 collection was to be called ‚Mimi‘ which has been my nickname ever since I was able to speak but couldn’t pronounce my very own name. I simply took the last syllable and repeated it, that’s how my byname strategically was constructed and decided til doomsday. MiMi has just shared a secret with you.
Enough of me now, let’s see what Sara Vidas‚ Mimi is like: ‚Mimi likes sweets, but she is not too sweet. She loves to pick a lovely cake from a colourful display. Mimi knows what she likes, when ordering patisserie as well as when choosing her look for the occasion. She knows to mix her styles and takes well care of her favourite pieces. She does not take herself too serious, but still appears very sophisticated. Mimi spends her spare time on cruise ships on the various Swiss lakes, where she enjoys observing other tourists through her sunglasses. She loves the irony and is very young at heart.‚ I see no difference.
Sommery hats and sporty head bands are combined with tennis skirts and 1960s velvet appliactions, chic boleros and white caps, brogues in patent leather and seemingly random vintage sandals. Peter pan collars come in small and big, white and black versions while contrasting bright red heart-shaped applications cheekily accentuate chest and nipples. Contemporary polka dots accompany denim in 1980s cuts, frilled socks belittle the slightly circus-esque look and beeded clutch bags add glamour to it.
At her second catwalk show at Paris Fashion Week, the models walked slowly to soft jazz music, just like a little girl imagining being a movie star. It felt like relegated into a begone time when fashion was a much slower industry and the shows were such that one found time to actually look at the clothes rather than just being overwhelmed by an impressive event.
Like in her previous collections, Sara Vidas liked to hang all sorts of things around the models‘ necks, such as clutch bags with red hearts or mini plastic bags on oversized lether and metal straps. This season, statement pieces go with statement pieces. MiMi will do.
Photography by Oliver Rust
