Marcus Wainwright and David Neville returned to their old stomping grounds in Notting Hill to shoot local girl Olympia Campbell for their lookbook this season. The environs weren't entirely incidental to the new collection's theme; as Wainwright deadpanned at an appointment today, the concept here was "old Englishman pajamas" (or pyjamas, as an old Englishman would have it). There's got to be a reason why clothes inspired by natty printed pajamas keep coming back into vogue, and odds are good this is it: Everyone is just totally exhausted. Lounging is the new aspirational lifestyle.
At any rate, this was a low-concept collection. Which was totally fine: It's just Pre-Fall! It's about clothes! Clothes women are going to want to schlep around in, over the course of those tricky months when summer can't decide if it's ready to turn into fall and people are being dragged kicking and screaming back to the office after a couple weeks—if you're lucky!—of vacation. Rag's pajama-print slouchy silk trousers and boxy, likewise slouchy, double-breasted blazers struck just the right ambivalent tone: There was a certain formality to the look, but a really easeful feeling, too. Clothes for sleepwalkers. You could say the same about the crinkled cotton shirtdress or a tunic-length knit vest and coordinating sleeveless cardigan. There were some genuinely sprightly looks here, too, though. The '70s-esque buttoned denim pieces, including a pair of high-waist shorts and an A-line skirt, were full of fashion pep—just the thing to throw on that last sunshiny afternoon in September, as you wring as much of that summer feeling out of the day as you can.
