René Gurskov SS10: The Dane and Donatella.

You know, it never ceases to amaze me the number of designers sans websites that bloggers unearth. Excepting my trawling through pages for something on Six Lee (I found the site, it was down and one made do with the Dazed coverage. Up now, though, and most definitely worth a look-see) I’ve never really found it all that difficult to enlighten myself regarding designers’ professional backgrounds/inspirations for collections etc. thanks to a standard Googling and gander.

René Gurskov has bucked the trend. Despite several prominent online publications featuring his work, the AW08 collection in particular, there’s no eponymous online destination to be found. The press release for his latest collection didn’t exactly succeed in clarifying anything either. Not-so-perfect English and cryptic statements don’t represent the worth of his work. Having scanned the release to find citations of inspiration: Donatella Versace, leopard print and the bling of a European prince, I reckoned it was to be a routine affair (quick scan, in the trash can) since it didn’t sound, as one might say, to my personal taste.

Wrong. The SS10 lookbook proves exactly why this Dane is worthy of note (and his own site too…). Yes, his style icon is Boy George but no disco references are overt, the OTT glamour and decadence mentioned in the press release is manifest in a somewhat sober fusion of detail and tailoring.

Remember the aforementioned leopard print? Well, it’s given an outing in a bulky cuffed sweat/tee, sculpted shorts (and also a panel on satiny-looking gym-shorts) and a neat bowtie, not, thankfully, in the form of a bodycon tank or thong as you might imagine. The real strength of the collection, though, is its mixing of tailored classics (pinstripe and gingham shirts) with sportswear staples (those football socks you may have seen club-hopping around some cities…).

Donatella would be proud.