Lupfer's Bizarre Bohos
Written by: Godfrey Deeny
Photos by Gruber-FWD
LONDON, Feb 25, 2002/ FWD/ --- It was billed as "Amazonian Boho," and the collection that
Markus Lupfer sent out onto the aisle in a north London church was as bizarre as its title
suggests.
Lupfer, a young German who has made a loft in London's East End his home, has been one of
the more exciting talents to emerge here in recent years.
However, the fall-winter 2002 collection he showed in the redbrick gothic Mary Magdalene
Church was not one of his best efforts.
It's not that there weren't plenty of fresh ideas, more that the complexity of the clothes
and murkiness of the mood meant that the collection didn't ever quite gel.
The designer opened with a jacket whose torso and sleeves had a top half of fur and a lower
half of leather.
It was clever certainly, but not really that chic. Lupfer packed the show with to-the-knee
skirts with ragged edges, padded silk jackets and baggy culottes, a big London trend.
His models, with weird micro-braided hair and strange leather patches tied to their forehead,
carried hippie patchwork leather bags.
Local critics bemoaned that Lupfer may have been overly influenced by his association with
Top Shop, the British mass retailer with whom he has a night-job as a designer, which
sponsored Tuesday's show.
Individual items were definitely attractive but the total look was rarely pretty.
This was a step back for one of London's more interesting design talents.
Markus Lupfer
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