No one likes to be put in a box. So it's not surprising that Matthew Williamson works to distance himself from his origins as a designer to Ibizan party girls. For Spring, Williamson conjured an exotic locale with no Pacha, no Amnesia, and not much of anything else. "My storyboard is a girl marooned on a deserted island," he said. "She has her Western wardrobe, and over time she becomes one with nature, picking up organic textures and materials."
To underline the collection's raw quality, Williamson set the stage with a pristine white tent built inside the distinctly urban and industrial Battersea Power Station. A single glass wall and glass ceiling exposed panels of the decrepit space. This is no place for a bikini or caftan, it all seemed to say, and sure enough, the city-chic foundation of the collection was smart but languid tailoring in cargo pants, safari blouses, and wide, pleated trousers and shorts, along with constructed, body-hugging dresses featuring chunks of beading.
For embellishment, Williamson's MacGyver-like muse might trim her tweeds in raffia and then knot herself up a bustier with a swingy fringe. Come evening, her parachute becomes a billowing gown shaped by drawstrings and trussed with a leftover length of macramé. The concept yielded mixed and sometimes clunky results, but there were some standouts, including a navy safari blouse tucked into a gold peacock feather skirt and a dark keyhole frock with a neckline edged in silver beading. It's a pity, then, that this girl's all dressed up with only the coconuts to bear witness.
