One thing's for certain: There are going to be an awful lot of beige jackets and pants, khaki shirts, and colorless chiffon things to choose from—or possibly shy away from—when Spring deliveries arrive. Watching Chloé made one realize how risky it can be, in competition terms, to be on-trend, and exactly what discriminating choices store buyers will have to make between one designer's take and another's, if their selling floors aren't going to stretch like an executive dust bowl as far as the eye can see.
That is not to say that Hannah MacGibbon doesn't have a personal point of view. Her take on the roomy jacket and easy trouser and the khaki button-down shirt is more boyish than most, and her girl has a refreshingly natural look—all recently washed hair and un-made-up skin. She also dispenses with the agony of high heels, preferring the comfort of flat leather walking sandals (a choice Marco Zanini, too, made at Rochas). That was fair enough, and the occasional long skirts that came with the tailoring offered a cool, different way to put things together.
But then came a puzzling passage of ponchos and jodhpur-ish stirrup pants that threw up the question of which season MacGibbon was thinking about, and when the floaty, fluttery side of Chloé was going to show up. It did, eventually, in some really pretty plissé flyaway layered chiffons (of the color-free kind). Meanwhile, MacGibbon also did her duty by the house by sending out some looks, like a generic flea-market outfit of denim shirt and jeans, that trained the eye on the Chloé leather goods on offer: to wit, a series of chestnut crocodile vintage-y bags with brass turn-key fastenings, slung on long straps across the body. In all? It was a generally serviceable collection for the brand, but in a slightly minor key.
