Idly swiping through Instagram after today’s Margaret Howell show, a narrative began to emerge on IG Stories; regardless of the age of the person posting, they could all see themselves living in the label for the rest of their lives. I mean, I feel that way too, but some of them were a decade younger than me, maybe (cough) two, or even (violent coughing fit) three. What’s the eternal—and terrific—cross-generational appeal of what Howell does? There’s a line of thinking that it is the unchanging nature of the clothes, that their everlasting quality means they work at any time and for any age. Except, that’s not really the case. To be sure, this British designer works within certain idioms—utility, craft, functionality—but to depict her as never shifting the needle is patently untrue. Perhaps, in fact, she shifts it enough for it always to feel modern and new while still recognizably her.
Howell’s co-ed show—she has been showing women’s and men’s together for some time now—underscored the idea that she can find the timely in timelessness to, well, “dramatic effect” is the wrong way to put it, but it was certainly insistent and absolutely consistent. The subtly emphatic shifting of the proportions on pieces that are unquestionably hers—the androgynous blazer, the tweedy coat, the rugged work pant—looked simultaneously fresh and refreshed. The wider, sloping shoulder on a jacket (for a boy or a girl) as a nod to the current preference for oversize? That was new. The low-slung, slouchier shape on a cotton drill pant that was also cropped, exposing a white-cotton-rib-socked ankle? That was new, too. And while it might not seem much in today’s world where big, dramatic design statements play out better on social media, the small, considered addition of a pie-crust frill on a crisp cotton poplin shirt felt kind of seismic—and looked great into the bargain. Somehow, all of this contrived to create a collection that looked real and cool and utterly desirable to wear this fall, but way beyond that, too. For a lifetime, in fact.
