Outfits from the world's leading designers got a spring airing yesterday writes Fashion Editor Deirdre McQuillan.
“THERE’S LOADS of colour, loads of newness and loads of excitement,” said MD Stephen Sealy introducing the Brown Thomas spring show in the store’s designer rooms yesterday.
“The worst you can do is to buy safe because it would be boring. The product has to jump off the rails at you. The dresses need to wow them,” he said.
Whatever about the wow factor demanding the wow occasion or justifying the hefty price tags (up to €1,200 for a dress), yesterday’s presentation featured nearly 100 outfits selected from the world’s leading designers by fashion director Shelly Corkery. Showing by brand in this way rather than by theme makes seasonal trends less clear cut but is an indication of how many customers buy.
The emphasis was on evening glamour with twisted and draped off-the-shoulder dresses and slinky backless jumpsuits (Phillip Lim, Alexander Wang, Martin Margiela and Halston), rather than everyday wear, making Dries Van Noten’s mannish white shirts and Stella McCartney’s breezy urban chic stand out. Her faded pastel tuxedo combos and winning citrus printed dresses gave daywear a modern uplift and her skinny trouser suit was the only one of its kind in the show. Puffy striped skirt suits from Carven and Giambattista Valli’s sugary tweeds looked less appealing on the young, pony-tailed models and shoes were either flats, block-toed stilettos or wedges.
One of the season’s defining trends may be high-waisted trousers with flares, a throwback to the 1970s, but dresses were still the strong points of the show.
Prada’s china blue or heart print dresses with a hint of the 1950s were prim and pretty while colour-block combinations were at their best in the cool modernism of Celine’s sleeveless shifts and Lanvin’s snake-print silks. Most striking shapes of all were the curvy cap-sleeved McQueen jackets and the tightly moulded skater dresses of Victoria Beckham, whose fashion credibility continues to grow. Her sweeping black hourglass gown, sexy but controlled, closed the show with real red-carpet panache.