Hana Zárubová: Breaking The Waves

(jiří macek)Hana Zárubová designed a quilted painting for the Miracles Archive exhibition at EXPO 2010 from which one can unclamp a circular down feather jacket. This motif and the fundamental circular principle were subsequently reflected in an entire collection from the No. label, entitled no.kolo. However, Hana Zárubová presented her latest fix-you collection at Designblok with which she has resurfaced and broken the circles made by water skaters.

The most beautiful circles are made by light-footed water skaters; stones that turn into frogs in one’s hands; and rain drops. No.kolo, designed by Hana Zárubová and Štěpán Malovec, contains bags, dresses, and down feather jackets. During the fashion show choreographed by Jana Burkiewiczová in the Superstudio, there was a wind that came forth from a painting that turned into steps. The time that preceded the wind had the rhythm of infinity. The heroes who counted it down looked like samurais. The lofty lines of the jackets from the fix-you collection intersected time and named it at the same time. Soft tender circles with strict heroes from Japanese legends transformed the Superstudio space, step by step, into a spectral Nordic story in an insistent rhythm. Water skaters and samurais walked on the surface in silence. Then one could hear a piano playing and rain.

Hana Zárubová designed the fix-you collection from an unexpected material – neoprene – and explains her key creative motif by means of technology: “I found it exciting to work with neoprene like with a wave or loden, to shift this purely technical material somewhere else.” Nevertheless, the formal charm, the unexpected link between the fix-you and no.kolo collections, time travel, and heroic associations all contributed to the fact that both collections ranked among the most outstanding Designblok events. After all, how often do you happen to see truly unexpected collections, meet new heroes who are strong, yet tender, contemporary, yet connected with the past? How often does fashion make you shudder? The technological treatment of the urban landscape surfers was derived from unconventionally used medical utensils – braces – the modified versions in black decorated neoprene jackets and dresses like unexpected brooches. For this reason, one can only believe in a more beautiful and colourful future and look forward to what comes next. This is a very special effect, considering the fact that both collections are black.

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