One glance at Bruno Pieters' Spring collection and you can see why Hugo Boss hired the 30-year-old Belgian up-and-comer as the art director of Hugo, the company's most fashion-forward label. Pieters has an eye and hand for tailoring that takes his jackets, pants, and shirts beyond the mundane. Working along similar lines to Raf Simons at Jil Sander, he cropped his boleros right below the bust and layered them over short bustiers that exposed an expanse of jersey-covered midriff above hip-slung pants. A coincidence, surely, but one that worked to Pieters' advantage.
Amid the sharply cut denim anoraks, collarless coats, and a great short-sleeve tux, the designer threw in a pair of puff shoulder, drop-waist dresses, one white, one black, both sheer—a nod in the direction of the transparency motif that's been kicking around since New York. Also timely, playing as they did into the boudoir trend, were the beaded cummerbunds-cum-girdles that peeked out above the waistlines of shorts and pants. Tricky, over-styled accessories aside—at Hugo, Pieters will have to break the habit for such frivolities as sequined stirrup pants and opaque white tights—this collection showed quiet promise.
