Basso & Brooke's Pretty Little Pipefish

For Spring 2009, the young design team of Christopher Brooke and Bruno Basso decided to take their devotees on a venerable trip down memory lane. The collection, a retrospective of their collections from the past four years, featured a dizzying [yet captivating!] mish-mosh of colors, textures, and forms eclectic enough to give John Galliano a run for his money. According to the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week site, amorphous shapes (which are accentuated by the use of outlandish prints, draperies, and colors) dominated the collection. So, it's not surprising that I was instantly reminded of the ornate pipefish (a member of the seahorse family) upon seeing these works of art on the runway.

This graceful fish is known for it's unclassifiable shape, complex patterns, and varied textures (from smooth and straight-bodied to hairy and/or spiny) and shares many of the same qualities of Basso & Brooke's collection. Interestingly, it also floats upside down motionlessly so as not to be noticed by neighboring sea life -- a lofty feat for such a spectacular creature. (Try doing that in one of these Basso & Brooke gowns. You would have to be crazy not to want every eyeball in the place looking straight at you!)