Ulla Johnson’s show was dedicated to her mother, Jasmina Draskovic-Johnson, who passed away in January. In a bittersweet coincidence, Johnson was referring back to her mother’s art practice this season, hand-painting black evening dresses with gold in a way that felt reminiscent of her mom’s gold-leaf paintings. There was also a gold cloque, gold-shot tweed, and gold lamé polka dots on black tulle.
It can seem almost frivolous to discuss the merits of the collection in the face of the loss Johnson has endured—is enduring—but she was moved to talk about her mother backstage. “They always say you turn into your parents. But I really trace so much of my work and my passions to the things that she taught me,” she said.
Fall found Johnson working in a number of ways to take her designs to a new level. It started with a collaboration with the French artist Julie Hamisky (granddaughter of sculptors François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne), who electroplates flowers to create sculptures and home furnishings. “Preserving ephemera in perpetuity,” as the designer described it, only in this case, the flowers were transformed into jewelry and accessories including the large poppy belt buckle that punctuated a shaggy shearling coat.
A long-sleeve black dress was decorated with swags of crystals and other stones. It constituted a glamorous departure for Johnson, who has up until now preferred an earthier kind of embellishment, and it’s bound to be a popular one with the retailers who were arrayed in impressive numbers in the front row. Elsewhere, Johnson upped the ante on handcrafts, working with Dutch textile artist Claudy Jongstra, who raises her own sheep and uses natural vegetable dyes on her yarns; she created the felted coats in Looks 10 and 17. Other coats were spray-painted in more vivid shades in Italy, with no two alike. Johnson did her mother proud.
