Good Golly Goot

The sunny reminders of Sydney just keep flooding back and whilst we're having our own sun moment (sadly short-lived... back to crummy sub 20 degree clouds this week), I thought it best to haul out what is technically an A/W 10-11 collection that of course has its own sunny subtext and is clearly meant to catch the rays.  Josh Goot took a break from showing in London in February but in his hometown of Sydney, he's doing fine and dandy with a very pretty store in Paddington which allows his printed pieces from his poppy S/S 10 scuba-infused collection to hang bathed in lightness and space.

Goot has admitted to having financial difficulties in the past year or so, nearly going under as a designer, which isn't so much of a shocker considering so many have faltered.  That said, he's back with a restructuring and a refreshed outlook that is apparently going to transfer to his website.  When we met Goot at his sales showroom (another light filled affair!),coach shoe outlet, he was telling us about his new website that will incorporate e-commerce in an entirely new way apparently... webby-me will of course be checking this out in due course because at the moment, his site stands un-updated and a little bit stagnant at an old collection.

Meanwhile, he has clocked up a collection that has quietly released... it adds much to a digital print strand that has come into its own in the last few years that some of you may tire of but perhaps like knitwear, will just now stand up as a design genre in its own right with some designers turning to it haphazardly whenever they want, or some using it as their design mainstay.  Suffice to say, in my books, there's enough room for everyone to jostle about the digital print sphere and Goot uses it with extreme clinical precision.  Symmetry runs through and through, seam for seam,Monster Beats Studio Kobe Bryant, ensuring everything matches up and is aligned perfectly.  The effect is that the psychedelic thunder that Goot has chosen as a motif comes out looking like a pattern of mathematical geometry as opposed to the unpredictable natural phenomena that it is. 

I especially like it when the print is pleated here so that the clouds,Monster Beats Lady Gaga, thunder, stars and skies are very much hidden and distorted into something more abstract and less literal. 

Tim Blanks noted of his last collection that it lacked breadth and depth and I suppose the same can be said of this collection.  Then again, when you're re-finding your feet, why try and inject depth when it's easier to run away with a motif and concentrate on a few things well.  Just need to find a flood of light in the depths of Northern Hemisphere winter to ensure these prints are done full justice by their environment...