Over the last few seasons designers have been surrendering to enchantment. The mood, executed lightly or darkly, is a surrendering to the fog of history and folklore. Considering current events, it may reflect the Zeitgeist. Then again, it may not. However, one thing is clear: exploring the richness of fairytale and legend will provide designers with a neverending supply of themes.

image: Alexander McQueen a/w 2006-7 www.style.com

Antonio Marras’ s/s 2006 collection was inspired by Tchaikovsky. On his website, prose adapted from Gogol accompanies images such as this one:

image: Antonio Marras s/s 2006 www.dailytimes.com.pk

Like Antonio Marras, Jean Paul Gaultier also dove into the richness of Russian folklore for his fall 2005 couture show:

image: Jean Paul Gaultier fall 2005 couture www.style.com

Both Jean Paul Gaultier and Antonio Marras’ (designing under his own label and for Kenzo) brilliant references to folklore and their affinity for Bohemian chic are authenticated by painstaking details in their garments:

image: Jean Paul Gaultier fall 2005 couture www.style.com

image: Kenzo a/w 2006-7 www.style.com

image: Kenzo a/w 2006-7 www.style.com

image: Jean Paul Gaultier fall 2005 couture www.style.com

image: Kenzo a/w 2006-7 www.style.com

Here, Yoichi Nagasawa seems to be under the spell of peasant chic, reminding me of this vintage Cacharel image:

image: Yoichi Nagasawa, SO-EN magazine, August 2005

image: Cacharel circa 1974, SO-EN magazine, April 2006

As a hopeless Anglophile, I can’t help but to return full-circle to the imaginings of Alexander McQueen:

image: Alexander McQueen s/s 2005 www.style.com

Whether intentional or not, the crown resembles the one Nancy Beaton is wearing below. It must be some kind of archetypal image…

image: “Miss Nancy Beaton as a Shooting Star”, Sir Cecil Beaton 1928 www.vam.ac.uk

McQueen’s s/s 2005 collection also includes looks inspired by an Edwardian childhood:

image: Alexander McQueen s/s 2005 www.style.com

I imagine this girl could hop off the runway and happily lose herself in a thick wood, stumbling upon teddybears at their picnic.