One of the most vexing things about fashion, in its current globalized condition, is the matter of what to do about “seasons.” Dion Lee, who’s got a booming business back in his native Australia, but who shows his collections in New York, is one designer who feels the pressure to accommodate all kinds of weather at all times of year very keenly. Pre-Fall, it turns out, is sort of a magical season for him—it’s the one in which the timing of deliveries of clothes to stores coincides with similarity in weather in both the Northern Hemisphere and the Antipodes.
Handed the opportunity to score big, Lee did. This collection differed from his runway outings in its emphasis on utility, articulated by the unusually broad selection of outerwear, daywear, and easy-to-assimilate engineered knits that could be dressed up or down. “Utility” didn’t translate to banality—Lee’s big Mongolian coats were particularly showy—but the focus on function did extract the strain of fussiness that sometimes runs through Lee’s clothes. Even his hyper-considered evening looks in triple-ply matte jersey, with their perforated hemlines and winks of sheerness where darts would normally be, had a certain sense of ease. They seemed like they’d be no-brainers to wear. That was certainly true, as well, of laid-back looks such as Lee’s cropped trousers and midi skirt in wool organza, both of which underlined this collection’s stress on fluidity and volume, a theme that also encompassed its most challenging looks. These were micro-pleated dresses with cape backs attached to sleeves; the dresses seemed to hover about the body, as though suspended there in defiance of gravity.
Even when he’s making commercial clothes—and this was a retail-friendly collection, indeed—Lee’s cerebral approach to construction comes through. The fact that he’s managing to thread his tricky ideas through clothes that come off as more or less matter-of-fact and approachable suggests that Dion Lee has arrived at a new, more mature, stage of his career.