You can only keep a good secret for so long. Four seasons ago Louise Trotter quietly took over as the creative director of Joseph, and since then fashion insiders have been snapping up the London-based brand's clothes. There hasn't been a buzz around Joseph so much as a powerful kind of silent acknowledgment—spy a woman wearing a pair of the clever Spring 2011 trousers riffing on workout pants, or one of Fall 2010's paradigmatically good, oversize Shetland sweaters, and you'd just nod your head and think, "Joseph." Those moments have been coming fast and furious lately: The secret's out.
As the latest Joseph collection affirms, Trotter isn't up to anything revolutionary, she's just making lots of winning pieces, ones that wink at current trends without being held captive by them. To wit, the new color-blocked mohair sweaters, timely yet evergreen, or the hooded shearling jacket detailed with grommets, which is distinctive enough to feel special, and hard to imagine going out of style. Trousers, as longtime Joseph fans recall, are a traditional strength of this brand, and the Fall collection serves up a few new closet staples, such as a wrapped silk harem pant and a wool trouser with a zip-over waist, as well as new iterations of the instant-classic workout pant introduced last season. Trotter and her team have also made a habit of combing the Joseph archive for signature knits; this season they've pulled out an eighties-era tiger intarsia and used it in an extra-long scarf, knit leggings, and a seriously cozy oversize sweater. Those tiger knits are about as loud as anything gets in this detail-driven collection, but one by one the pieces are never boring.
