Fur pompom scarves. Leather holsters. Duvet coats that peeled away at the shoulders. And don't forget the woven leather huaraches dripping with paste brooches. The irreverence of Phoebe Philo's Fall Céline show was met with enthusiastic surprise, but as these Pre-Fall pictures suggest, Philo has been in a more playful headspace for a while now. Shown by appointment at Céline's new Paris headquarters during the couture shows in January, the collection retained many of Philo's recognizable signatures, from the cropped culotte silhouette that has since been adopted by scores of other labels to the fringing that she began playing with on her Spring '15 runway.
The news was in its looseness, both literally (long-sleeve silk blouses were suspended from the most delicate of straps, exposing collarbones and biceps) and figuratively (the outlier of the lineup, a crisp white shirtdress, was embroidered in a naive style with a bright red sun and a pair of birds). Philo did a lot of experimenting here, most of it compelling, but the best look might've been the simplest. It was a white V-neck maxi dress with the slightest bit of ruching down the front, as effortless as a T-shirt but elegant as all get-out.
