When Isabel Marant, the brand, goes in for romance, it’s always with a touch of grit. Take florals: garden blooms may be the classic trope for spring, but here creative director Kim Bekker grafted them with a lashing of Victoriana and the Far West to come up with a different, more nuanced attitude.
“We wanted to create a compelling contrast between delicate and tough elements,” Bekker offered during a showroom preview. She wasn’t just talking about the women’s pre-collection; the men’s lineup was plenty poetic, too.
When treated as all-over motifs, florals cropped up sprinkled like polka dots over a draped jersey dress, or as a kind of a hybrid between an ikat and a tie-dye motif. More impactful, however, were abstractions rendered through laser cutting on a white leather minidress or etched in metal studs and gradient eyelets on a black velvet jacket. Fans who go in for a little cowboy inspo will have fun with the western-leaning blouse and black dress here.
But this collection is just as much about Victoriana, with cinched waists, ruffles, and revisited mutton sleeves-as-power shoulders. Refreshingly, save a couple of very pretty numbers in densely-enough worked lace, the brand isn’t leaning hard on transparency. “Sexiness doesn’t need to be nakedness,” Bekker quipped. Instead, soft fabrics, faux fur, and lace made for easy, feminine silhouettes muscled up a bit with strong statement earrings.
Edginess came in staples like raw denim, leather jackets, and boots that nodded westward but were carefully dosed and filtered by way of the Place des Victoires. Speaking of Parisian chic, the cult, slouchy, minuscule-heeled Edrik boot is back for tucking in billowy trousers or pairing with stick-straight jeans, now with laser-cut moons that wink as the wearer walks. But there’s a new low ballerina boot in town, too: the Ferix seems to be Isabel Marant’s answer to mesh. Take a closer look, and you’ll see those cut-outs are tiny hearts—how in the world they pulled that off without going ‘cute’ is the brand’s secret sauce.
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