Pablo Neruda’s poetry inspires designer collection

New York, Feb 15 (IANS/EFE) Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and his “Oda a las cosas simples” (Ode to simple things) are the inspiration behind a latest menswear collection by Honduran designer Carlos Campos.

The autumn-winter collection for men that Campos presented in New York is dominated by green, the colour of the ink used by the Nobel prize-winning poet.

Campos is the first Latino to present his new collection at the New York Fashion Week, where he launched his first line in 1990.

The designer brought to the catwalk 14 designs in wool and cotton, trimmed in green, blue, gray, brown and earth tones. Included in the new productions were shirts, three-quarter length coats and overcoats with silk linings.

Campos said the fabrics used in this collection came from Uruguay, Peru and Italy.

“Each year I return to what is the origin of who I am as a person. This collection is inspired by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in every sense - from the way I used his hat to how he wore his coat,” said Campos, who emigrated from Honduras to the US when he was 13.

“There are many references to him in this collection - in the texture of the fabrics, the colours, the green, in particular - since he wrote all his poems in green ink,” he said.

Campos said he was, in particular, inspired in his latest collection by Neruda’s poem “Oda a las cosas simples”, in which he confesses his “crazy” love for simple everyday things like scissors, cups, hats, thimbles, the curves of shoes, cloth, wool and buttons.

Although he had known of Neruda’s work for a long time, he said he discovered details about the Chilean 1971 Nobel Literature prize winner’s participation in politics and his exile in Italy as he prepared this season’s collection.

Neruda (1904-1973) was a political activist and became a senator in 1945, ran for president in his country and was a member of the Central Committee of the Chilean Communist Party.

–IANS/EFE