Henry Holland has long been the pied piper of a certain brand of cheeky, youthful cool. Emphasis on youthful. Just take a look at the cute crowd of Alexas and Pixies that filled his show. But leave it to Holland to flex his well-muscled sense of irony and flip that notion on its head. Enter his clever Fall collection, which revolved around the various codes of granny gear.
In the mood for tailoring, Holland whipped up Harris tweeds in candy colors, exclusively made for him in Scotland. He furthered his subversion by cutting them into a little motorcycle jacket and bike shorts with black patent trim, as well as a sexy little onesie suit. A nana-appropriate full skirt and jacket—shades of Christopher Kane's neon Princess Margaret moment last Spring—was worn over a logo tee and had an errant lace-trimmed slip peeking out of its hem. Quirky prints on silk blouses and housecoats were based on the "older lady pastimes" of tending to budgerigars and playing bingo. And the good old afghan blanket got its due as a photographic print, both clever and cute in a waxed cotton trench and a crystal-encrusted party dress.
What Holland sells falls at opposite ends of a spectrum. On the one hand: hosiery (here in sherbet stripes and an alphabet-soup logo motif), T-shirts, and other jersey pieces. On the other: the most directional parts of his runway offerings, which are sold at Colette, Opening Ceremony in the U.S. and Japan, and Selfridges. It seems that he's trying to ramp up the latter, and this collection could help his cause. That doesn't mean he's forgetting his strength of marketing his ideas through bulletproof commercial vehicles. To that end, he's currently at work on a sunglasses collection due to bow in September and a top-secret project that he promises to spill the beans on soon.
