CYBELE

Nocturne is a romantic evocation of impossible beauty. A shimmering, monochromatic vision on a silver screen, punctuated by flashes of electric blue and the softest pale pink.

This minimal colour palette summons the collection’s architectural but fluid silhouettes to the fore, also freeing the eye to explore a complex range of layered textures and bewitching prints.

Wool and tweed jackets and coats are cut to cocoon the body in convex shapes accompanied with long, slim-lined sleeves. Full, romantic skirts in sheer and luxe fabrics splay from the waist in gothic black, cinched by invisible plastic belts.

Transparency and translucency are recurring themes. Opaque forms are layered to ghostly effect in fluid silks and viscose/crepe with a subtle metallic lustre. Black lace and metallic mesh tops pierce this spectral surface, offering proof of a corporeal presence beneath.

There is a nostalgic retro-futurism to Nocturne’s use of clear plastic accessories and armorial over-pieces that encase the wearer like Space Age leadlight windows.

The dark romance blossoms into a mirrored rose print motif, curving ornamentally at the neckline of one dress or at the hip of another. The rose reappears in vivid cobalt blue at the base of a maxi dress, symbolising the unattainable beauty and impossible love that mystics attribute to blue roses.

A metamorphosis occurs in other original Cybèle prints created for Nocturne, with the phantom faces of owls and cats appearing to materialise in intricate arrangements of flowers and foliage.

Nocturne is the twenty-first Cybèle collection, and the eighth to be shown at New Zealand Fashion Week.