Michael van der Ham’s Mixed Media

You can’t consider Michael van der Ham without considering Rodarte. The Los Angeles-based sisters’ influence on the Netherlands-born designer is undeniable when you look at his Spring 2011 collection, shown today at the Topshop space in Waterloo Station.

But van der Ham does something with his clothes that the Rodarte sisters have difficulty pulling off: Despite the mismatched prints and odd seam placement, his collection always looks clean, polished and pretty. I was particularly fond of the summer velvet Pollini shoes he used in the show, as well as the very unique colored crystals he incorporated into his looks. (As a Swarovski sponsored designer, van der Ham had access to the company’s vast crystal archive. However, not all of his peers utilize this privilege in such an impressive way.)