Designer Jennifer Waters wears canvas trench and model Sheila wears a pleated dress in silk tie-dye — a sneak preview of Waters' House of Groves collection to be unveiled Thursday at LG Fashion Week.
DAVID COOPER/TORONTO STAR If crowd reaction is any indication, fashion lovers will be poised to pounce on the House of Groves spring 2011 collection to be showcased in the tents Wednesday at LG fashion week.
House of Groves, designed by Jennifer Waters, was the heart breaker earlier this year at the Toronto Fashion Incubator’s New Labels competition. The $35,000 prize was won by Montrealer Anastasia Lomonova, a perfectly capable designer of draped and ruffled frocks, but bloggers and commentators on blogs quickly moved into high gear lamenting the loss for Waters.
“She (Lomonova) may have won the competition, but another winner was present in the form of House of Groves, which was, I think, actually the superior collection,” wrote Briony of blog-to; many of her readers quickly concurred in support of House of Groves’ edgy equestrian-themed collection of slickly tailored dresses, pencil skirts and jackets in materials including leather, vinyl and silk.
That “classy carnality,” as Briony put it, that so revved the crowd last season may well have gone the way of the cherry blossoms in this next collection. While Annie Hall and the Duchess of Windsor might seem like very distant relatives, these disparate icons blended in Waters’ imagination and, voila, the prim and proper spring 2011 collection for House of Groves was born.
“My inspiration came from a felt hat I found at a vintage store, which reminded me of Annie Hall,” says Waters. The Annie influence is clear in the high-waisted trousers and a relaxed seersucker suit, but goes nowhere in explaining the number of ladylike dresses she’s created for the season.
“It is very ladylike, sort of what Annie would look like if she dressed like a girl. Or Wallis Simpson. Or what you might wear to a garden party,” says Waters. “Annie Hall was the jumping off point, married to the lady who lunches or goes to garden parties in the Hamptons.”
The overall effect is that of the country-club set., where there is a long history of some looking like they’re wearing Daddy’s old clothes grabbed from the mud-room, while others are ladylike and unflappable. Waters calls the clothes “the perfect veneer to a troubled world.”
Her focus is on careful tailoring and fit, high-quality fabrics, and silhouettes that not only acknowledge but celebrate the fact women have waists, curves and bums.
Waters calls this her second “real” season; she launched a year ago with a few styles for spring ‘10. She is also largely self-taught, though she’s been in love with fashion since childhood. “Whenever I read a book I imagine the wardrobe of each of the characters. Fashion is my calling.”
How she will present her newest collection is a secret until tomorrow. She’s doing an “installation” rather than a runway show, riffing on the idea of the garden party. She promises a surprise or two. “There are a few special things I have planned, but “I’m keeping them under wraps,” she says.
Given the “classy carnality” of the last season, there might be special surprise lurking in the collection, too.
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