Hands down, the standout pieces at today's Emilio de la Morena show were his carelessly chic jackets and coats. So it didn't come entirely as a surprise to find that de la Morena's initial inspiration this season was some outerwear of his own. Eschewing his typical art world references, de la Morena just riffed on an old, sleeveless waxed jacket, and that made for his most direct and realistic collection yet. Silhouettes were a touch slouched and fluid, and a sense of rawness pervaded in the fabrics, with grainy hessian silk predominating. Elsewhere, de la Morena amplified the collection's tactility by creating handwoven knits—these were great—and fixing appliqués on top of a woodblock print, a technique that created a fluttering effect where it was used. De la Morena is still a romantic at heart. On the other hand, he can also tailor the hell out of a pair of lean trousers, and with this collection, he merged his poetic and technical instincts in the service of clothes that had some of the ease of an old, beloved jacket.
