Stella McCartney's on a roll. There's the new store in New York's Soho and a second London boutique opening this week. There's the Olympics, for which she's designing the British team's uniforms. There's the string of recent red carpet coups—an hourglass Kate Winslet comes to mind. And today there was her new collection, which captured how women want to dress now.
Backstage McCartney talked about merging city and country, and day and night. "The Stella woman is about balance," she said. After nearly a month of fashion shows, the women in her audience this morning are all craving some of that. Well, sorry, ladies, but you'll have to wait several months to get your hands on the polished yet easy pieces in this collection.
Coats are always a highlight at McCartney's Fall shows—you can pass the time waiting for papa Paul to take his seat counting examples from the previous year. The standouts here were a side-zip style with the season's bolder proportions in a vivid blue, and a tailored number with a sporty knit collar and the padded hips we've been seeing all around town. She dressed up her tailoring with graphic, botanical embroideries (white and black on that same vivid blue) or embossed the same pattern on double crepe. Jackets were slightly oversize and pleated pants slouched from the hips.
Maybe with an eye to the coming Olympics, McCartney ended her collection on a sporty beat. Long-sleeve dresses with kicky hems were pieced together from stretch tweed and ergonomic blocks of blue and white. Plenty sexy, but more covered-up than her frocks have been lately. Gymnasts? Tennis players? Cheerleaders? They had a cheering section in her front row.
