Sustainably sewn and abundantly sowed, this beautiful Phoebe English collection seemed as deeply rooted in folk as it was in fashion, thanks to a 12-look narrative that was part corsage, part calendar. It also represented, English reckoned, the most decorated collection she has ever presented: “I don’t know where it’s come from,” she said before the first of three standing shows this afternoon.
The idea behind both show and collection was a kind of wearable botanical almanac. Each look represented a month and also a flower or plant. In running order from look 1 and January onwards, those organic totems were: snowdrops, dandelions, cowslips, apple blossom, nettle, foxgloves, fern, rocket, rosehips, cyclamen, ivy berry, and catkin. “These are the plants that have sustained me throughout the year,” said English. “It’s about a kind of transference of energy from these natural beings.”
Many of the garments were garlanded with material recreations of the plant from which the idea of them blossomed, with particular loveliness in the case of February’s dandelions. Other times, as in July’s fern, the silhouette of the inspiration was pressed within the result. Each was constructed from a diverse mix of fabrics, much of it in the form of waste offcuts harvested from a network of makers with which English partners. That these companies specialize in bridal wear explained the all-white palette, although in this designer’s hands the color-story evoked druidry and paganism: very olde England.
The designer said that she and her team constructed each garment around the body in a manner conceived to reflect the natural architecture of the plant from which it was drawn. There were tangles of asymmetry, strands of trailing ribbon, thickets of gathering. Once the clothes were built, they were subjected to a gentle cultivation through steaming, crushing, crinkling and twisting. This process created texture and tension as the fabrics reacted in differing ways.
On a bouquet of humans cast as diversely as England’s botanicals, the collection had an appealing air of organic ceremony. It is now 15 years since English founded her label straight out of fashion school. That she is still thriving as an independent, despite the punishing climate of late, qualifies her as a hardy perennial. This season she blossomed too.
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