With the expectation of a lamé stripe and a bowtie on a strappy sandal, there was nothing superfluous in Petar Petrov’s tightly edited spring collection. For the most part the palette was neutral, bar the addition of a deep green leather, with strong shoulders, pleats, and linen-blend materials imbuing the whole with a sense of orderly geometry. Yet there was something unexpected bubbling below the surface. “I like this feeling of being undone, not too precise and there is kind of flexibility in the way you wear it,” said the designer.
There were tops and skirts that could be combined in different ways and with past collections, but the sense of undone-ness that the designer referred to was unrelated to a sense of haphazardness or misfit; what made this collection distinct is that the body unabashedly came to the fore. With stretch silks and jerseys Petrov, consciously or not, seemed to have given into the sinuous lines of Vienna’s Secessionist style. In a digital world, the designer said he wanted to get closer to the senses, seemingly through the interaction of fabric on skin. There were worn leathers, crisp linen, and second skin stretch fabrics that folded, draped, and moved in unison with the body and conveyed a sense of physicality. (See looks 3 and 25 with their Martha Graham vibes.) And in keeping with the general mood of the season, Petrov was after a sense of weightlessness, aiming to “reach this generosity through this lightness because [the fabric] can easily kind of disappear on your body.”
Not everything in this collection was so ethereal; some of the leathers didn’t feel spring-like at all. But the overall impression was more sensual than controlled. At a time when he finds people becoming more conservative in dress, Petrov said: “I think we need to feel free in the way we dress and we have to be more confident.”
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