"It's true, I can't resist a deer," said English designer Emma Cook while showing her latest collection. The designer's penchant for wildlife is well known: She often uses large-scale digitized photos of animals and ornithological images in a mutant, surreal, and unexpected way. For Spring, however, she dropped that signature for something fresher and different. "For prints, we wanted to give a more hand-painted feel rather than digital and go for something really feminine and romantic," she explained. "I didn't want to bore myself, so it was really time to move on and explore other themes and techniques."
For the most part, animals gave way to tropical leaves and magnolias, with bold, verdant colors suggesting a jungle after the rain. The hand-painted floral theme contrasted with stripes, revealing a welcome new freshness and lightness. There was still a touch of wildlife, though it was a lot less literal than in the past: A "crocodile print" on pajama pieces didn't have the face of a croc, but instead was the pattern of a ripple that the animal leaves behind after swimming through water.
Where Cook really progressed this season was with shape: Being so obsessed with prints in the past has meant that silhouettes often suffered, with too many oversize, shapeless dresses and caftans. That changed for Spring, and it was apparent from the first look—a clean broderie anglaise dress with a touch of mesh and fringe that had just the right amount of structure. This was followed by a bomber jacket with an eyelash fringe and a fitted blouse with an amusing flamenco-like detail on the sleeve. Sharply cut culottes, trousers, and knife pleats on a V-neck dress showed Cook's newfound interest in tailoring, although the pool slides gave the collection a casual, contemporary, sporty feel. All in all, it was a much more polished performance than in seasons past.
