Edeline Lee is part of a burgeoning cadre of Canadian designers in London, a list that includes Erdem Moralioglu, Thomas Tait, Todd Lynn, Mark Fast, and Jean-Pierre Braganza. Unlike her fellow Canucks, most of whom come from the eastern provinces, Lee grew up in British Columbia, as a Whistler Mountain ski jock. Her new Fall collection is devoted to her inner teenager, a sporty 17-year-old who dreamed of life in the big city.
Even when Lee references the past (as she did with the Bloomsbury Group last season), she imagines how those from bygone days would dress in the future. She also has a penchant for the architectural and the artistic. The first look encapsulated that: a boned bustier dress, from the waist down it was half-culotte, half sun-ray pleats. The cocoon coat that followed was made from double-faced satin and wool with a prodigious shawl collar in laminated bouclé and neoprene. Grid detailing in asphalt gray felted fabrics replicated the color of the New York City streets, and there were paper-bag waists and a top with an oversize bow that could be tied in a multitude of ways. Flaps on a jacket shoulder were shaped like glass shards from I.M. Pei's Louvre pyramid.
Lee is a self-described "pattern-cutting nerd"—her precision comes from her days at Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, and Zac Posen. In the past, she's gotten flack for her monochrome-loving ways, so she injected a fair bit of Yves Klein blue here. Her arty, intellectual fans will gravitate toward the graphic black-and-white print on blue that was inspired by Japanese wood-blocking techniques.
