Fish Skins Motives in This Year’s Fashion

Chanel mermaid silhouette, Givenchy shark tooth, Alexander McQueen coral set dress… many strong images developing the metaphor of submarine life as major theme of the summer 2012. And if these items are not – as it is the case with most of them – designed to be worn as such in the street, this undersea trend has nevertheless attracted a considerable amount of interest for the fish skin.

Used in Japan since the eighth century to cover valuable items and accessories, fish skin had its heyday in France in the eighteenth century due to the Marquise de Pompadour. It then gradually falls into disuse before being revived two hundred years later by the Art Deco designs of Paul Iribe, then in the mid-80s, where it caused a sensation in the furniture and leather goods areas.

Unable to impose itself as a lasting trend, fish skin is soon replaced by designers in favor of more “carnivores” types of leather, such as crocodile, alligator and more recently python. In 2012, the tide is turning: the texture of the stingray, the iridescence of the eel or the large scales of the pole suddenly become the new testing ground for fashion designers.

Thus, the Italian Riccardo Tisci conceives the Givenchy jackets in shark skin and adornes the mermaid dress with eel scales, while the Cambodian-American Phillip Lim’s shoes come with a seasonal both raw and refined aspect because he refrains himelf from tanning the exotic fish skins he uses. The American designer Alexander Wang brings a new density to his future “it”-sandals using these skins dyed in burgundy, pure white or turquoise shades.

Whether its via patterns, pigmentation or texture, fish skin provides fashion creations with an attractive aura. Nothing more efficient than relying on a somehow forgotten design element to restore the vitality of a men’s blazer or to a classic pair of shoes.