Art is Abundance: Adam Frost SS24
Words: Mandy Warhole Show coverage and social media: Karin Sarkizova Photographs: KMR Consultancy
The best thing about the Adam Frost SS24 show during an otherwise blotchy fashion week is its consistent cast of characters. Between the icy corset boning, the Barbie pinks and the Hot Wheels yellows, lies a wisdom those of us (un)fortunate enough to have sat in the perpetual stew that is our community for a little too long will know all too well. The veil between another Sunday morning day rave and the performance art piece of a lifetime is thin and barely covers the crotch. So thin it is, in fact, that it is probably not a veil at all, but good old pink body paint. If there was ever any doubt about whether queer people were cool with their Emperor being naked all along…
Frost’s silhouettes reflect the hypermedia miscellany of our every day, incorporating everything from club kid shoulders to baroque rouches to uniform. As bibbed hemlines, tracksuits and power suits all floated down the runaway in quick succession, I thought about how much of queer existence is a constant runway happening within a never-ending fighting ring on a long distance business call. The same can be said of Frost’s pedantic use of colour. Among the whirlwind of prints, the shoulders, and other sharp edges are perfectly matched shades of pink and blue, yellow and orange, red and gold. Each colour has also been donned with its synergistically correct texture (the gold must be sequin, but the red - leather; but the pink can, of course, be anything). Deliberate in his approach to every detail of the collection, it is the clear place of method in their process that attracts us to its madness.
Frost uses styling to drive home the points they are so feverish to make with their clothes. Whether it is the crimped headpiece the colour of Kim K’s fortune (neon yellow), any of the other wigs, the nails, or The Hands™, the show weaponizes abundance in defense of the increasingly elusive concept of queer joy. Incorporating protest imagery into his show, Frost seems to be acutely aware of the pressure exerted on creativity and nonconformism during these historic times. In “Art is abundance”, abundance becomes the ultimate form of resistance. As wigs flew through the air during the final walk through, all I could think about was how much this sets the scene for the perfect game of Tories’ greatest nightmare-themed Whack-a-mole. Like, this is everyone you would have to destroy in order to get to the final boss: all of us moving somewhere, where we could live freely and, drumroll.. abundantly. A separatist heaven on one of those all-pink islands in the Maldives perhaps, or, like, Sweden.
Adam Frost SS24 ‘Art Is Abundance’ Credits:
Press: KMR Consultancy @kmrcomms
Styling: Kim Howells @kim_howells
Production: Vikki Burns @vikkiburns_
Hair: Nick Irwin @nickirwinhair and the Schwarzkopf Professional Team @schwarzkopfpro using Session Label #sessionlabel
Make Up: Pablo Rodriguez @pablo_rodriguez_makeup
Nails: ImaniCured @ImaniCured
Jewellery: Emily Grant at Era of Mystique @eraofmystique
Shoes: Natacha Marro @natachamarro
Print Design and Consulting: Hayley Cowling @hayley.cowling
Drinks: Hoxton Spirits @hoxtonspirits and London Essence Co. @londonessenceco Catwalk Images: Chris Yates @itschrisyates
Sound: JBL @jblaudio_uk #teamjbl
Plaster and PVC dress in collaboration with @olivia_strange_
Music Producer: Ana(3)
Sponsored by Henkel/Schwarzkopf
Tees, shirts and sublimation print in collaboration with Imprint @imprint.works, coming to Imprint works store soon, find out more at www.imprint-works.co.uk.