Being a child in the 70′s, I’ve always had a soft spot for designers paying homage to that decade, because their creations feel like home. The fashion house Chloé, founded by Gaby Aghion in 1955, has changed many faces – its past creative directors include Karl Lagerfeld, Martine Sitbon and Stella McCartney – but has always stayed true to a precise style. Effortless chic, femininity and girly details (the infamous scalloped hems) have often recurred in the collections of the last decade, thanks to the artistic sensibility of Phoebe Philo and of her successor, Hannah MacGibbon. The recent news of her departure from Chloé are kind of sad, because she succeeded in giving the idea of romanticism a new turn.
The fall/winter 2011 collection is imbued with a 70′s vibe (colour blocking, capes, snake prints and shirtdresses), but the detail which has caught my attention is the ruffled collar featured in three outfits. I’m obsessed with it because it characterized my mother’s wedding dress, which I’ve loved since I first saw it, kept in a box in my grandparents’ old closet. The ruffled collar, so much in vogue in the 70′s, can somehow be considered the result of an evolution started by the Elizabethan ruff.
The concept of power dressing, so relevant in the 70′s and 80′s, seems to have lost its peculiar stiffness and harder edge in most of contemporary collections. The outfit above is a nod to that style – long, high-waisted pencil skirt with leather braces (Yves Saint Laurent meeting Gordon Gekko) – but the flowy blouse injects a much needed dose of femininity to a graphic item of clothing.
The same element completely changes its function in this dreamy dark brown dress. The girly touch of the white collar doesn’t contrast with graphic-like lines, but emphasizes the romanticism of a crinkled chiffon number with satin ribbon accents. In this case, the reference to the 70′s is still present, but is different: power dressing has been replaced by a doll-like style, reminiscent of the trademark creations by Laura Biagiotti.
A dream-like quality is amplified by the colour (ivory) and by the materials used to make this impressive set of dress and mantle (silk and pleated chiffon). The doll-like atmosphere is more present than ever, mixed with some old-fashioned details, like the huge bow closing the mantle, or with the sexy plunging neckline. The pleating and the loose shape of the dress (no waist-line here) are clearly reminiscent of the disco decade, and pay homage to designers such as Halston and Jean Louis, who loved using pleated chiffon for evening dresses. The charm of the outfit resides in the perfect balance of contrasts: the mid-calf lenght is surprisingly a modern element, while the dramatic mantle, austere yet romantic, gathers lots of different references – Little Red Riding Hood, Dracula, cloak and dagger movies, for example – turning it into the most symbolical item of the whole collection.
Now that Chloé has a new creative director (Clare Waight Keller, previously at Pringle of Scotland), the future of MacGibbons is still unknown, but I’m sure she’ll prove to be a designer with a unique eye for anything feminine and modern.
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