Geometry first entered fashion as art. In 1913, Sonia Delaunay pieced her painter's arcs and blocks into a robe simultanée, then spent the twenties turning that idea into a business—textiles, coats, and her Boutique Simultané at the 1925 Paris Exposition.
Half a century later it turned electric and mainstream: Yves Saint Laurent's 1965 Mondrian dresses, Emilio Pucci's kaleidoscopes, and Bridget Riley's Op Art, lifted off her canvases and into shop windows the length of Madison Avenue.
The seventies belonged to Missoni's zigzags and chevrons; the eighties to Memphis blocks and Patrick Kelly's graphic nerve; the nineties to Versace's Greek key and the pleated planes of Issey Miyake.
The line runs straight into high fashion today — checks and stripes at Marni, layered grids at Dries Van Noten, Duro Olowu's mixed-print tailoring, Christopher John Rogers' saturated blocks of color.
What I love about a geometric print is how much it hands you: structure to cut into, movement that reads across a room, a line that carries the garment. If you love working with and wearing geometric designs, I invite you to explore the collection!
