Continuing to work in the form of narrative, Todd Thomas presents his distinctly cinematic new collection with inspiration torn from both the headlines and atmospheric alleys of American culture: Depression-era opportunism and opportunity, created to an imagined soundtrack of typewriters, tap dancing and machine gun rat-a-tat.
“For many of the silhouettes in this collection, my references are taken from the era of starlets, secretaries and gun molls,” says Thomas. At the center of his muses is the infamous Hollywood “scandalevangelist” preacher, Aimee Semple McPherson, who had thousands of devotees, spoke in tongues and captivated the nation’s attention by staging her own kidnapping. In her honor Thomas created a flowing Biblical robe in solid colors, in keeping with her own unique look.
Deco-edition American secretaries inspired two refreshingly original prints, digitally printed on silk georgette and silk taffeta, called Typefetti and Illegal Shorthanded. Made of floating typewriter-print  confetti, Typefetti evoked in Todd’s head the song “Happy Days Are Here Again” along with the sound of tickertape chatting out the bad news of the day to the newswires. The Illegal Shorthanded print is made of real shorthand on a yellow steno pad print, and a little secret is that the shorthand actually spells out the story of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Todd’s black and red “typewriter ribbon” dress provides the exclamation point.
“ On a subconscious level I was thinking about the women of that particular time and what opportunities there must have been or must not have been for them, and the panic they must have felt,” Thomas says. He draws on the light and the dark, the hope and desperation that existed simultaneously. “I thought about the coexisting of wickedness and demureness,” he says, pointing out that the fantasy of being a starlet, or of being an outlaw like Bonnie Parker, was for many a panacea for the desperation of the times.
From a textile and print design point of view, Thomas combines a variety of themes, effortlessly managing elegance and cleverness at once. “I was drawn to the slightly loose, slouchy shape for the majority of the dresses,” Thomas says. His shorts and pants with many-layered pockets are made for Depression girls and grifters alike, with multiple pockets to fill with nothing, with dreams or with other people’s wallets. “I thought of the sound of the typewriter and how that sound is evocative of the sound of machine guns and simultaneously the audio of tap dancing,” he says. “It all came together in my mind as a sort of a Busby Berkeley machine gun ballet."
The collection has heavy, bold geometric influences to it, featuring a number of graphic two-tone gowns in simple, witty, and deliberate cuts. There is a subliminal and utilitarian chic in his color selection; colors loaded with implication taken from the prints: carbon and mimeograph blue, manila envelope tan, paper white, steno pad yellow, India ink black and blood red. The constructions are more complex than they appear to be at first glance, but it’s quiet complexity, an outward simplicity hiding a complexity within.  Together the garments create a dramatic sense of movement and pathos, with closeures that envelope and wrap, and dresses that appear to be “falling off,” as if tailor made for cigar-chomping “casting agents” to easily slide them off the hopeful little ingénues. Chic wool crepe and rayon knitted pieces combine futurism and nostalgia, reflecting Thomas’s print motifs through crafty intarsia techniques. Varying weights of dry silk crepes, georgettes and chiffons conspire to create an elegant, simple silhouette, and additional textures are provided in the use of taffetas, rubber coated silk organza and in the knitted pieces.
To enhance his theater of garments, Thomas created a wonderfully amusing line of accessories for his cast of secretaries, grifters, dreamers and crooks: simple motifs of revolvers, fountain pens, eye glasses, religious crosses, and ridiculously proportioned strings of pearls. He also created a pair of demure white “circle gloves” ideal for church and for concealing a few bucks skimmed from the collection plate.The accessories are a delightful representation of hard times and chutzpah. The world’s a rough place, gals, so choose your weapon carefully!