TSE @ FW2012 Collection

TSE FW2012 Collection themes are drawn largely from the study of the manipulation and manifestations of the character and qualities of architectural, decorative and art glass from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This inspiration was applied to a variety of treatments of cashmere thread for a collection that explores the elegant, fragile elements of craft and texture. Key stitches create variations of texture and echo the facets and bevels of period glassware. Seaming on double face cashmere is influenced by a more contemporary take on glass, with the architectural consistency that is a Tse signature.

  

   

A range of cool tonalities include Champagne, Charcoal, Aventurine, Euclase, Chartreuse, and Obsidian: dense and carefully pigmented unconventional hues that evoke the transitional qualities of glass with greens and browns that resemble black, and whites and blues that resemble grey. The intense saturation of bright colors on ostrich leather or fox fur gives them an astonishing lucidity, while new colors emerge as knits of varied gauges are mixed for an alluring gradient effect.

  

  

Prints are based on composited photographs of goblets, windowpanes and other glass objects. These digital collages have a prism effect and alternately resemble clusters of flowers or scattered jewels in kaleidoscope patterns. A woven floral pattern appears to be almost etched in a whisper-weight silk fil coupe’and suggests stained glass as light shines through in some places while being obscured by others. This detail is mirrored by subtle pointelle pieces whose tiny, regular holes reveal the body in a less literal way, mimicking seams in order to define the architecture of the body. The motif of transparency/opacity is developed further for a knit jacquard that at first appears to be a chiffon-appliqued tulle.

  

 The play of light and shadow are evident not merely in the opposition of light diffusing-knits and double-face wovens, but within the array of knit techniques. The sheerest “cobweb” cashmere knits are counterposed by elaborate handknits rich in surface detail, to plaited knits whose compressed fibers suggest the weight and coverage of thick jersey, to perhaps the densest knit of all, fiber-for-fiber: knitted fox, used in scarves and collars.