Spring Trend: Glow In The Dark

(clockwise from left) Alexander Wang spring 2013 show; Bex Rox (2); Tom Binns
Photo: (clockwise from left) Leslie Kirchhoff; Evan Sung (2); Courtesy of Tom Binns

Following Alexander’s Wang’s mesmerizing finale, during which models appeared to float off the runway in gleaming, phosphorescent looks, several accessories designers at Paris Fashion Week have also plugged into the trend. “It’s a little tongue-in-cheek and futuristic,” says London-based jewelry designer Bex Manners, who sculpted 24-karat gold painted cuffs and rings with central cubes filled with radiant, light-reactive powder, for her line Bex Rox. “The idea sparked at Burning Man,” she says. “There’s no electricity there, so you learn to be creative.” Tom Binns, meanwhile, has been setting throats aglow for a decade with jewelry crafted from epoxy resins hand-painted on crystals, and this season gives a series of tribal-themed, face-framing neckpieces, entitled Eclectro Clash Nova, that familiar luminous treatment. “It has nothing to do with the nineties,” says Binns, pushing aside any references to white-gloved club kids brandishing glow sticks. “I combine confrontational aspects, like fluorescent colors and traditionally glamorous necklaces. It’s a way of changing a historical artifact and making it modern.” Wang’s urban spring uniform touched on, says the designer, “otherworldly things, which manifested, in the final looks, as glowing knits.” And the overriding appeal behind this amplifying of our closets come spring? “Women like to look modern and there’s an edgy glamour to these colors,” says Binns. “Maybe that’s what they like about it? It makes them shine.”

(vogue.com)