Barbara Bui Spring 2014: A New Take on Denim

Spring, for Barbara Bui, is all about light denim: across lace-encrusted blazers and high-waisted hot pants to pretty pieced dresses and strong-shoulder jackets. Denim in general, really, as the hues got darker (and the silhouettes stronger) as the show went on. While not every look was a hit (the center-creased denim pants, when taken out of context, bordered on leisure suiting), a lot were. There was a textural denim breastplate-resembling top, whose strong seams and cut-and-paste look were really very cool; also the denim floral dress whose pattern was created from carefully shredding the material.

Though denim-heavy, it wasn’t exclusively about the jeans. There were breezy looks in red and white and strong looks in rubberized floral (a rather killer bubble-shoulder jacket). But yes, experimenting with and exploring the possibilities of denim was the main focus. The tufted denim jacket/skirt combo recalled streetwear in a really cool way, and Bui’s piecework on the collaged looks was really stellar—a good way to elevate a denim dress from everyday to something pretty special. Some were reworked so much it was hard to tell it even was denim, a noble feat.

Let’s just say this: Barbara Bui has us reconsidering the practicality of a denim cape, and we are A-ok with that.