Leave it to Rag & Bone's David Neville and Marcus Wainwright to make a maxi skirt look effortless and sexy at the same time. The ease came from the stripey T-shirt they paired it with; the sexy was taken care of by the sky-high slit and the strips of leather at the waistband and pockets. "When in doubt, add leather," Wainwright said, explaining that the material sells well for the duo in their own stores (the latest in Tokyo's Omotesando neighborhood) and in their wholesale outlets. That explains the pair of biker jackets, one buff, the other black; a leather sweatshirt that has "hit" written all over it; and the papery leather wrap skirts—a direction the designers hinted they're heading in for Fall. Neville and Wainwright also experimented with denim, a fabric at the core of their five-and-a-half-year-old brand, turning it into a paneled, lightweight skirt.
In fact, light might be the defining characteristic of a pre-fall collection they described as "clothes for a downtown girl, for real girls." A striped silk jacket had an almost weightless hand, a T-shirt dress played opaque against sheer, and the open weave of a cardigan sweater, worn tied around the waist as a skirt, exposed a flash of leg. "It delivers in May and June," Neville said. "It's hot; it should be light." Real girls everywhere will thank them.
