Nonchalance. It's the defining characteristic of the Stella McCartney aesthetic. She makes no-fuss clothes that don't stint on fun. Simple though that may sound, sit through a month of shows and you'll soon discover it's not such an easy combination to pull off. Few designers have the effortless thing down quite like McCartney does.
For Fall, she conjured that easy, breezy feeling from the first look out: a black coat and pants that could have coded dull, but absolutely didn't thanks to the coat's swooshy, handkerchief skirt and the pants' godet hem. She zhuzhed up other trousers with deep cuffs or paper-bag waistbands. Jackets, meanwhile, came with wrapping details at the waist or buttoned askew; stripped of any businesslike connotations, they remained utterly suitable for the office. One-sleeve ribbed knit sweaterdresses that were open at the side pushed the dishabille concept a step too far. But the idea McCartney was trying to get at with this collection—of structured silhouettes unraveling to suggest something more fluid—worked nicely elsewhere. That was especially true for evening separates and dresses on which a single strap spilled suggestively off the shoulder or a fillip of fabric ruffled and peplumed at the hip. Double strands of pearls with a twist at the collarbone echoed the clothes' erotic lines.
One other note: In a season that has seen an endless stream of fox, mink, and pelts of all sizes, McCartney deserves a special round of applause for her outrageously good-looking long-haired "fur-free fur" overcoats.
