Yesterday, Thomas Tait, the young, Canadian born designer based in London, presented an installation at Pitti Uomo in Florence. Until last year, when he won the LVMH prize for young designers, Tait’s talent was roundly unappreciated; and even yesterday the shy designer looked as if he still wondered what happened and how he ended up a special guest at Pitti Uomo, the fair known to bring in more buzzy guests, like Hood by Air and Marcelo Burlon.
For his installation Tait teamed up with the architect Mehrnoosh Khadvi to create a mirrored corridor that displayed Tait’s new takes on his original designs. The new designs were decidedly high-tech, such as a cashmere and celluloid “Ghost Stripe” knit jumper and silver plated crescent LED earrings.
In the middle of the room was a looped recording of Tait’s conversations with the fashion critic Cathy Horyn, the stylist Beth Fenton, and the aforementioned architect.
The presentation was clean and minimal, an unfussy take on Tait’s own work. We had the mirrors, and all that was lacking was smoke, which would have turned the installation into the commentary on the fashion industry at large.
All images by Eugene Rabkin and cannot be reproduced without expressed permission.
