Simon Miller - Resort 2025

(Images:  Simon Miller 2024)

Like Jasmin Larian Hekmat's brand, Cult Gaia.  I have a soft spot for this late 1970s homage to the divinely hedonistic 70s, through to the 1980s where the counter cultures went from their free love peace loving hippies, to the sexual liberated 70s and 80s, and its anti-nuke war rallies.  Ending literally overnight in the 1990s, when the Baby Boomers children, Generation X, ended up as one of the, without being too hard, stagnated and in a lot of ways traditionalist generations to date, despite dashes of rebellious simulacrum of those last Three decades.  It was seen more as a novelty, than a statement of change.  Now 24 years into the 2000s, not much has changed, this new formed conservatism has very much dug itself in, without a cohesive or interesting counter culture appearing on the horizon.  So, are we allowed to romanticize?

Why not?  As long as it is done without invoking the restless spirits of those boulevards of broken dreams, to which Chelsea Hansford of Simon Miller portrays in her respectful homage, via a devotion to her beloved Los Angeles 1970s template.  Reflecting a L.A.,when it began to replace, somewhat, New York City after the 1960s, as that American popular cultural beacon, with the plethora of heyday movie stars and celebrities, that have all since passed on, who would mingle with the locals at the iconic West Hollywood Chasen's American restaurant.  Even with its urban sprawl, L.A. throughout the 70s and 1980s reflected a personified aspiration of celebritydom, way before the digital age and the late Andy Warhol's famous quote, of everyone will be "famous" for 15 minutes in the future holds very much an oracle's relevancy, only to be updated to its now 15 seconds of feigning fame, via the digital reloops.  The pre-digital age felt more real.  Despite the crime, crumbling cities, grit and smog.

Hansford titled her Resort 2025 collection as "Gala", after the late Salvador Dali's muse and wife Gala Dali, who passed away in 1982, and Dali retreated to his revamped 12th Century Castle Tower in La Bisbal, Púbol (Spain).  In which, he had dedicated the historic landmark to the Cult of Gala in his unwavering devotion and love for her.  Yet, the years following her death, she was revealed to be hypersexual with an insatiable appetite for male lovers, also having a controlling persona and short temper.  Hansford's latest array, does indeed show a sexual tension, a dominating presence, yet with its paciful appeal.  As Gala was for Dali, when he would often emotionally fall apart, and could not paint, a pacifying presence.

Although Hansford has used animal prints steadily since she took the reins of Simon Miller in 2018, the latest styles, with their leopard prints, show more of an aggressive aesthetic, with boxy tops and long coats inscribing a regimented look, as Gala was often described as "fierce and small" with "eyes that pierced walls", in lieu of her dominatrix persona.  There is no doubting the serious undertone of this collection, it does feel a lot more rigid than previous showings from Hansford, even though her 1970s elements can be seen throughout, which assists in softening the collection and offering a playful balance, the evocation of Gala as an inspiration for the Spring 2025 lookbook, has set forth an overall cold resolve, much like the woman herself, and her restless spirit. 

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(A.Glass 2024)