And so my love affair with eternally fresh mint continues. This season serene sea green hues continue to unfetter both menswear and womenswear like a cool breeze over the fashion landscape. Mint is pastel without being prissy, exuding optimism without being saccharine. It is a friend of the ethereal (which is why it is often used in science fiction) and of individual, do-as-you-please style.
Jessica Agutter as Jessica 6 in Logan's Run.
In Logan’s Run (1976), a dystopic sci-fi set in a world where life ends at 30, mint green represents contradictory elements. It is the colour of eternal youth and the technology of a crystalline netherworld, but it is also the colour of entrapment and doom. Mint green is used in this film like an energy force, from the neon green set design to Jessica 6′s Roman-style sateen sideless cape dress and the glittery spangles of Holly 13′s high-collared mod dress.
Chloe Resort 2012
This silk pleated dress from Chloe Resort 2012 channels the tradition of floaty, sublime goddess dresses. It combines the disco freedom of the 70s with the classical appeal of grecian antiquity to hypnotic effect. This image strangely reminds me of those scenes in movies when the impossibly beautiful female steps out onto the street to hail a cab and the next thing we know she’s found dead in a ditch and it’s all downhill from there.
Fairytale in a mint green gown. Tim Walker is one of my favourite fashion photographers. Here Lily Cole ascends (or maybe she is descending – the photo’s seductive quality makes more sense if she is entering the space, not leaving it) a spiral staircase, her dress trailing into the derelict grandeur of the surrounding room. Shot on location in Whadwan, Gujarat, India.
Batson's Printemps Bikini for their spring summer 11 'fall' showing at BWC
I don’t know much about what’s going on in this picture. All I know is that the model second from the left is wearing a shimmery mint green high waisted bikini by Brisbane label Batson at the Brisbane Women’s Club fashion parade and she looks pretty happy because she’s getting paid to do it.
Zimmermann 'Halycon Days' spring summer 2012
“For (s)he on honeydew hath fed, and drunk the milk of paradise.” The ‘Idyllic Honeydew Crossing Panel dress’ is perfect for skating around in on those social occasions where the illusion of propriety may be called upon until the champagne kicks in.
Arnsdorf 'The Circle' spring summer 2012
This ensemble brings to mind eating pistachio gelati icecream cones on a hot summer night. I am also a huge fan of shorts worn with moderately high heels.I think my love of this look started when I saw Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver and I never quite got over it. Silk green tank available from arnsdorf.
Acne spring summer 2012
I love this collection by Jonny Johansson so much I feel slightly ill when I look at this photo. But ill in a good way. We could talk about the shape of necklines and collars but I’d rather talk about the brilliance of this dashing mint green cable knit jumper. The look is 70s retro sporty and would, in my colour-addled mind, be best suited to a man who has an understanding of 70s scandinavian design and who appreciates the benefits of tucking one’s jumper into their trousers. This is a man who probably owns a record player made out of real teak!
Mugler menswear spring summer 2012
For Mugler’s Paris show men were presented as arcadian gods operating in a utopia where lime green brothel creepers are something you wear down to the local convenience store. This show represents some sort of Formichetti wet dream and what follows is a futuristic skewering on the attendant archetypes. Formichetti attributed the significance of the acid green which featured throughout the show to technology. ”That green represented the blood of the digital era,” Formichetti said. “If this technology has a kind of color, for me it was a neon green.”
Mugler Resort 2012
For Mugler’s Resort 2012 show, Formichetti dipped into botany for inspiration. The result is as sleek and silhouetted as a body-con palm tree. Have you visited the Jardin des Plantes in Paris? This greenhouse is where the seeds of inspiration for this collection were apparently planted. I love the leather pants, as shiny and green as running across wet grass while drinking champagne in the rain.
Walter Van Beirendonck spring summer 2012
Pastel suits, 50s boxy shapes, boucle tweed suits, patchwork leather elbow-length gloves, models with bouffants and combs in their air and giant topiary-tulle orbs – the latter which reminded me of a grandiose version of those toilet roll dolls you used to see in suburban bathrooms in the 1980s – conspired to take over the world at Van Beirendonck’s Paris show. Absolutely awesome.
Still life with mint green wedge
And last but not least, some inspiration from my own life. This absurd ‘still life’ was taken at 2 in the afternoon in my friend’s backyard. My friends and I had been up all night, resulting in this rather random and starvation-driven picnic. Stars the sherbet green Melissa scarfun wedge, which is on permanent loan from a dear friend. There was plenty of champagne on offer that day. Lots of fizz and bubbles, salt and vinegar crisps and shoe flinging.
And that brings us to the end of our epic voyage through the wondrous world of mint green!
