Damir Doma presented his menswear collection at the Lycée Henri IV in Paris on Saturday. Firmly grounded in the colours of the earth, his gentle warriors descended upon the terraced gardens in the dimming twilight. No longer on a gallant quest, Damir’s men seemed to have found their destination – in a grounded uniform that spoke a new sophistication of proportion, of light and dark, of drape and exposure.

Damir Doma Spring Summer 2011

“A new control emerges in the reverent uniforms of the scorched earth. From a cloistered existence, a gentleman walks through mineral landscapes. An unknown static breaches his calm, weaving a subtle gleam into old tradition. The disturbance becomes vestal, augering the age of experience. Innocence is shattered as a new harmony reigns.

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Born on a bed of stone, the Damir Doma man carries a hardness upon his back, carved at the shoulder in acute structure. His sleeves warp in batwing volumes; his torso is robed in a flat plane or lost in light folds. Carpeted in the fractured weave of woven cotton, he bears a new geometry – as disparate angles align in points of harmony.

Tones are volcanic, gathering momentum through a strata of pure greys, taupes and black. A print explodes as cosmic smoke, as white noise arrives in a second skin of knitwear and blanket shawls. Light coats carry a quiet drama, constructed in papery cotton gauze, washed linens and cashmere silk. His legs are softly bound in pleated shorts or a low sarrouel trouser, his head crowned by a sombre fez. On his feet, formal sandals are worn with knitted socks, or a low desert boot grounds his step.

Divining a delicate tension, Damir Doma aligns a timeless balance between opposites. The keystones of universal folklore become blurred in the chaos of today. In the eye of the storm, grace is born from instinct.”