November 8, 2016 |
Ah – finally. Seems like forevs since we first laid eyes upon these beauties in the far more pleasant setting of Céline’s shiny HQ in Paris rather than, as we find ourselves now, looking at them via a computer screen in our slightly less shiny and currently Baltic offices in Soho. But, alas, as they say: true beauty shines through. So, to warm your various cockles, here is every look from Phoebe Philo’s Spring 2017 collection. Which weirdly makes me think about that episode of SATC where Charlotte dresses up as a man, tash and all, for her artist boyf. Not that this is drag king territory, per se, but there’s something about the tailoring (which, coincidentally, makes up a large portion of the collection) that has the feeling of what a woman’s body would look like in a man’s suit – wide on the shoulders, loose on the leg but then cinched at the waist, as if someone has pulled the fabric from behind. Let’s call it Phoebe’s take on the power suit. And, of course, utterly fabulous. That masc/femme thing is at play throughout – veering from the tailoring to a kind of girlish softness, playing on what can be seen and what can’t – lightweight layers of transparent fabric, semi-sheer wallpaper-esque florals or peek-a-boo cut-outs that that reveal teases of underwear beneath. A colour palette of washed-out, faded pastels. But it’s not in any way saccharine – long, ribbed-knit dresses lend a grown-up, and strangely sexy, air to proceedings, as too do those ah-mazing knee-high leather biker boots. Darling Phoebe – if I were able to squeeze my shapely (read: man’s) calves into them I’ll take a pair. Or two. Or, really, anything. We adored it all. Of course we did.
