“How does it feel to be finally in charge at Chloé? ”Oh, it’s heaven!” a warm respond of a tired but gladdened 38-year old blond British designer, Hannah MacGibbon. As we all know, she assisted Phoebe Philo from 1997 through the label’s red-hot early-halfhearted days to heat back up again after some tepid seasons.
Here she comes, let’s bow our head and praise our Chloe Princess as she enters the kingdom this winter season.
Sassy, sexy and ultra cool, Chloé is a paradox of both feminity and romance infused with a Parisian street-creed edge.
To my Chloe Girl whose urban tedium never faded her lust for life with an aristocratic past and to the present wild side.
“One day, she is in a fox, beaver and coyote jacket, insouciantly worn with a billowing musketeer silk blouse and stovepipe pants whose very proper English morning stripe is scrolled with very un-proper gothic blooms. The next, she is feeling for something that is free, loose, and flowing – a rose griffe print silk dress that skims over her body before languidly flaring out towards the floor. If she needs something to throw on top, she’ll grab the lean, nipped-shouldered wool coat with velvet buttons that she borrowed from her Kensington nanny, the coat she could never be bothered to return. Yet no matter what she wears, this Chloé girl is never without her jewel-like compact bag, in shiny leather rimmed with python, which hangs from her shoulder by a multi-chain strap. Super pointed spike heels in patent leather and crocodile sharpen up the look.
There are amply proportioned, masculine-look overcoats, with folkloric side slits, in classic English herringbone or check tweeds, slipped over bejeweled organza and mousseline tutu skirts. Victorian-inspired narrow cuffs and a high neckline adorn a lace cocktail dress… Lace or gazar polo shirts and cropped, straight fit boyfriend sweaters are the crucial underpinnings… And add this season’s essential Lurex leggings or floral glitter tights, and the whole look really rocks.
Chloé’s long-standing tradition of richly imaginative prints is continued. There are many ornate, opulent patterns—border-edged Pallenberg paisleys, bold medallions, and naive lace designs that look like they have been collaged from the furnishing remnants of a once sumptuous, now abandoned manor house. The color palette is like a jewelry box being opened on a darkening winter’s day: amethyst, rose, and evergreen, contrasted with black, biscuit, smoke grey, and midnight. “This season, the CHLOé girl belongs to the magpie school of looking good. She is a little vagabond, a little boheme, in spirit, and in her life” says Paulo Melim Andersson, Chief Designer of the house.
(the Chloe Press Release)
This is truly an evidence that MacGibbon holds a key to the It-ness, the spontaneous, non-intellectual-girl knack that is central to Chloé.
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