You shouldn't have wasted time rooting around under your seat for show notes at Felipe Oliveira Baptista. There weren't any—an intentional omission. "I wanted to try to do something that has its own impact," he explained before the show. "I just wanted to do desirable clothes, well, try to, anyway." If you're a fashion writer who's heard her share of hanging-by-a-thread inspirations, clothes about clothes aren't an altogether bad thing. What might incite pure desire here? Certainly any of the coats in rectangular silhouettes, pieced together with wool, leather—both patent and matte—and shearling, as well as a pair in a luxurious pebbled navy leather that were curiously alluring despite their handbaglike thickness.
Not coincidentally, outerwear is this up-and-coming designer's strongest retail category. The show wasn't, however, entirely a reference-free zone. When pressed, Baptista mentioned being moved by the hard lines of communist architecture, and Belle de Jour. And perhaps just a hint of Courrèges, as in the collection he showed just over two weeks ago for Lacoste. Those standaway shapes and graphic pastiches of zebra print and color shards undeniably had a sixties pop and fizz, though perhaps somewhat filtered through the more recent lens of Nicolas Ghesquière. Baptista explained backstage that he finds it exciting to start each season with a blank page. However—although his edgy-sporty voice is starting to emerge—it might be nice to carry over a few lines from season to season in order to resonate more strongly in a city filled with serious fashion.
