After the resounding success of the latest FOLK collection, Daalarna designer Anita Benes decided to pay more attention to the characteristics of Hungarian culture. Rhapsody as a genre is a one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated and free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, colour, and tonality. Composer Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies are some of the most famous pieces in this topic and this music has inspired Anita Benes as well while creating the RHAPSODY collection.
‘It was fairly easy for me becoming one with my topic as I am always experiencing the same feelings when I am creating a new collection. This mood with its passionate feelings, emotional storms and internal struggles, is probably also quite familiar to brides as they prepare for their weddings. Our new RHAPSODY collection was inspired by this extremism which is visible through the use of the materials and applications but also in the variety of the styles.’
In this new bridal collection, minimalist and sophisticated details alternate with flamboyance and exaggeration. Simple textures and patterns are merging with layered and pulled techniques, detailed embroidery and floral motifs.
The white shirt-blouses and sheets have often been mentioned as key pieces of the early Hungarian peasant life. These inspirations gave the idea for the RHAPSODY lookbook’s set where white sheets hang from the rope in the background. The inspiration from the campaign photos is based on another well-known representation of Hungarian cultural heritage: a black and a white horse.
This was the first time Anita Benes experimented with fringes and feathery materials as well which are interpretations of the sheepskin coat – another iconic traditional Hungarian item of clothing.
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