Jean Colonna would like you to stop trying to be perfect. “People want the perfect pants, the perfect coat,” Colonna said, “you will never be perfect.” Those who aspire to be beyond fault carry too much expectation with them, says Colonna, walking editors through his collection for Fall 2016, and high expectations are something that those of us who live in the year 2016 might do well to do without. Which isn’t to say that these clothes are about giving up. Rather, they’re about giving in to your better instincts, the ones that tell you to invest in well-cut cashmere and easy silk dresses; that you really don’t need to try every trend; that there’s nothing wrong with digging through your own closet, rather than this cult of the “new”; that the only person you need to impress is yourself. “I am not a storyteller. It is not about these complicated ideas. I make clothes,” said Colonna, and it would be tempting to describe him as speaking in Zen koans if he didn’t seem to be right so much of the time.
“I always forget what I did the season before. I would have to see a lookbook,” said the designer, who trawls his own archive for inspiration, resurfacing some pieces to show alongside his new creations, as he did here with the delicately sequined racer-back tanks, rock T-shirts, and zip-front hoodies that were paired with the new sumptuous and featherlight cashmere knits. This, Colonna asserts, is the way that real women actually dress; they don’t just toss everything out at the end of the season and start anew. They build a wardrobe. And they will be happy to add his faux-astrakhan-trimmed wool coats, supple slip dresses, and cutout and classic “real cashmere, and real silk” to theirs.
