Libertine Spring 2023 Ready-to-Wear Collection
The first thing Johnson Hartig said today—after hello and an offer of a drink—was that he doesn’t design to a theme. Generally that’s true, he follows his passions and his eye. “There are probably 10,000 images on my iPad that I collect,” he said. Dozens of them seemed to have inspired a maximalist print on a pink ground that featured a pirate’s bounty of Edwardian and Victorian pins laid over hand-painted Chinese wallpaper from the 17th-century. He used it for pants, a bow-tied blouse, a coat, and a lovely tent-shaped short puffer. The effect was ladylike with “levity,” Hartig’s keyword for the season. Charming was the word for a romantic print featuring a castle in a misty forest.
In Hartig’s universe, art and collectibles (like Staffordshire dogs) vie for attention. A dot print seemed to nod to the Damien Hirst that the designer has in his collection. A floral based on a blown-up cyanotype print had a graphic boldness in the manner of Donald Baechler. Text is a recurring Libertine trope, and this season it was partly inspired by the graphic design and lettering of Sister Carita, an artist and activist.
A few seasons ago Hartig decided to get back to the canvas, as it were, and started to offer solids in a luxurious four-ply silk. Many said this was counterintuitive, but he reports they are selling well. For spring he added printed cotton pieces as another new alternative for customers. Business in general seems to be booming; Libertine offers a lot of joy for the buck, as it were.
For Hartig, beauty is an antidote to the upheaval of our times. His clothes delight not only with color and visual interest, but give form to pleasure. The beaded butterflies on a black coat have antennas that poke into the air; beaded lady bugs (a symbol of good fortune) are so dimensional they look like they might fly away. A sensitive man, Hartig feels keenly what’s happening in the world. It’s not happenstance that he’s beaded a vintage French military jacket with papillons; there’s a method to his madness—and a message as well: “Give peace a chance.”
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