Pre-Fall collections tend not to have a soundtrack, a set, or the reactions of the crowd, among other elements of persuasion. But Chloé’s latest—shown back in January at the company’s Paris headquarters—managed to be pretty evocative anyway. The ability to conjure not just a mood but an entire lifestyle is designer Clare Waight Keller’s gift.
This season it appears that the Chloé woman will be traipsing from a weekend idyll in Morocco (a tapestry coat of many colors) to a music festival (patchwork silver sequined track pants and billowy silk blouse) to the wilds of upstate New York via Brooklyn (denim tunic worn with zip-legged denim pants stuffed into crepe-soled shearling boots). There was shearling outerwear of many types, but Waight Keller didn’t skimp on lighter stuff like wispy point d’esprit dresses and sheer lace frocks, a smart move considering the clothes are arriving in stores just as summer temperatures start to take hold. From the looks of things, the Chloé woman’s lifestyle doesn’t entail much time spent in an office, but when it’s necessary, she's lucky enough to get away with long trousers in a decidedly noncorporate shade of apricot or smocked-waist, super-wide-leg pants in gray marl sweatshirt fabric. Nearly everything here had a slouched-on, slightly-to-significantly oversize silhouette, which added to the overall carefree spirit.
