Chemena Kamali gets a kick out of how the kids in the Chloé studio dress, which emboldened her to take a spontaneous, freewheeling approach to the pre-fall collection — while also reasserting the brand’s longstanding reputation for cool, great-fitting pants.
Perhaps it’s not so logical to crop a robust, rib-knit Donegal sweater at the ribcage and band it with Guipure lace; to wear socks with wood, suede and transparent polyurethane platform clogs, or to layer up ruched peplums, one on the bottom of your lace camisole top — the other attached to a leather belt worn over your ballooning pants.
But the end result charmed, rooted in Chloé’s graceful femininity and Kamali’s obsession with the ’70s and ’80s, her mood board plastered with celebrity portraits by Francesco Scavullo, Bettina Rheims photos from her 1989 book “Female Trouble,” and Paloma Picasso at her 1978 wedding wearing a frothy yet strong-shouldered Karl Lagerfeld-designed Chloé gown at the after party.
“I was thinking a lot about not wanting to formulate things,” Kamali said, citing a will to create clothes that “feel familiar, but where there’s newness, inventiveness and surprise.…It really inspired me to see how the new generation takes dressing as an extension of their own individuality.”
The designer maintained links to past collections and Chloé staples, riffing on leather bomber jackets with the allure of blouses, and blouses, too; vaguely Victorian jackets with an heirloom quality; delicate lingerie tops and dresses, and floaty chiffon dresses.
There was plenty of newness in pants, spanning from velvet stirrup styles and snug suede leggings to garment-dyed workwear pants cut straight like the ones sailors wear. For a stronger fashion statement, high-waisted jeans exploded into giant pant-legs that gave the impression of a broomstick skirt.
Kamali described “pieces that you instinctively and naturally reach for” that are relatable, and “anchored in reality.”
But there was no shortage of fun, impulse items, like a pendant modeled after an apple core, a clam-shaped ring with a mirror inside, and a mini version of the Marcie bag, because why not?
