Paula Gerbase, until now has been a little known fashion designer. This lady has made a massive impact on the fashion world this year. Showcasing her new collection for Spring/Summer 2013 in Japan, Milan and London at their respective fashion week's Paula explained exactly where her inspiration this year came from, the concept behind her "unisex wardrobe" and her rocky road to recognition.

Paula Gerbase studied in Womenswear at Central Saint Martin's. She trained in couture tailoring at the atelier of Hardy Aimes. She then spent five years as head designer at Savile Row tailor Kilgour before launching her own line called "1205" in 2010. Her time at Saville Row gave Paula "an experience that put her in the thick of the real production of clothes". “I was always drawn to structure in terms of how I look at things,” she says. “I found my home when I arrived on Savile Row.” Her razor-sharp men’s and womenswear betrays her Savile Row learnings, as well as her obsession for keeping a close eye on the hands making her clothes. “I wanted to know the guy who’s putting the buttons on and the one that does the sleeves, and the quality control girls always bantering,” she explains. “I come in, they make me some terrible tea and we just have a chat". This lady certainly does sound like she has her feet firmly on the ground!

For her fourth collection, for Spring 2013, the London-based Central Saint Martins grad looked at Brazilian architecture and Marcel Gautherot’s collection of photographs documenting the construction of the Brazilian capital, Building Brasilia. This gave her a backdrop to work from, a creative focus and a concrete launch pad for her sharp designs. Her favored contrast of sharpness and softness is exemplified in a photo of a uniformed construction worker leaning up against a building—and looks just as sharp an image as the atmosphere shots for the 1205 clothes this year.

The Spring/Summer 2013 collection mixes classic materials and newer ones, like a gray wool skirt given a slight crunch thanks to nylon yarn mixed in. A suede-looking jacket that is not actually suede, but Alcantara, an interiors fabric—”You can drop coffee on it and then just wipe it clean!” Gerbase crows. That’s about as modern as traditional-seeming garments get.”
 

These amazing clothes are upending tradition, and Paula's loyal clients are following suit. "I've had men buying skirts to wear as kilts", the designer elabourates "And I've had women wearing full on men's suits". It's a tailoring revloution, and I personally adore the idea of a "unisex wardrobe". This trend is one to watch.

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