Some very cool predators stalked the runway at Giles today. Taking his cue from the artist Walton Ford and his vaguely menacing paintings of wildlife, Giles Deacon gave snakes, leopards, and birds of prey a soigné spin. Frizzy serpents twisted around the torso of dresses. Brooding leopard faces stared out from fractured grayscale and sepia-toned prints. Eagles hunted in a pink silk pajama sky and fluttered their vast wingspan across the horizon of a caftan. Most memorably, though, there were the cat claws—oversize, multicolored, and glittering under a finish of sequins. Deacon's sense of pop has rarely if ever served him better than it did here.
The really great thing about this show, though, was the way it managed to bridge the differences between Deacon the demi-couture gown-maker and Deacon the sassy, streetwise club kid. The same fractured leopard print that showed up on a voluminous gown also found its way into trim pants and little day dresses. The claws turned up on a sequined, ankle-length slipdress, but one was also knit into a goofy, oversize sweater, and yet another grasped the back of a laid-back pale pink jumpsuit. Many of Deacon's dressy looks exuded a nice "whatevs" mien, like the floor-length skirt in pink jacquard paired with a matching zip-up, racerback top. The casual approach to formalwear felt relevant, modern. It also felt correct for Giles. Deacon should keep working this groove.
