Chromat Fall/Winter Collection 2012

Nowadays, most lingerie brands aim to turn up the erotic heat, but Chromat goes the other way: it’s simply the coolest label in the market today. Chromat made a splash over the past few seasons with its visually arresting lookbooks filled with cage-like corsets, body harnesses and strappy undergarments featuring graphic cutouts and angular silhouettes that play off against a woman’s softer contours.

Its whimsical FW 2012 collection, Cool World, is inspired by the 1992 movie of the same name in which animated characters tried to live in the real world. Chromat uses cartoon-like skeletal frames to create “exaggerated constructions of femininity” in pieces like a Jessica Rabbit cage dress, a three-dimensional cone bra and even a Minnie Mouse headpiece.

For Becca McCharen – the brand’s main designer, the transition from urban design to fashion undergarments was really just a matter a scale: taking the same critical eye and diagrammatic aesthetic that she once applied to the built environment and turning it on the human anatomy. You can see that aesthetic most in Chromat’s core cage collection of bodywear pieces that have been described as anatomical “scaffolding”.

And despite the theoretical and academic approach to her work, you can also see the influences of contemporary fashion stars. Notable (and obvious) influences include Gaultier (Becca admits to being a Gaultier “geek” and maintains a blog devoted to him) and McQueen, both of whose experiments in turning the human skeleton into a fashion device are vital keys to Chromat’s aesthetic.

By the way, Chromat’s dramatic styling attracted interest from celebrities, including Nicki Minaj and Madonna, both of whom wore Chromat pieces on their latest concert tours.

Chromat Fall/Winter Collection 2012:

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