Ports 1961 is gearing up for a Milan show in February, the brand’s first under the creative directorship of Natasa Cagalj. She has been steadily implementing changes at this label for a year, a stealthy overhaul plotted from the creative think tank of a London studio in Farringdon, where the focus is on taking the stress out of fashion for a generation of women balancing work and family and trying to have some serenity and fun along the way. Cagalj, like a zillion others, is one of them—a designer who has come to the post via Stella McCartney and Lanvin, which means she knows her stuff when it comes to good fabrics and cutting a coat, trousers, and shirt.
The upshot is a collection that makes the best of a grown-up body, skimming in various confidence-boosting ways over that midsection that few adults want to bother with. Hence the preponderance of A-line shapes, whether it be in an oversize cream coat, a crisp white poplin tunic, or an oversize patchwork mohair knit. All of that was intercut with what’s becoming Cagalj’s signature—small touches like the zigzag multicolored rickrack used in place of tuxedo-type grosgrain ribbon on a pair of black trousers, the artist’s palette paint-print on a collarless white shirt with rounded tails, and total looks tailored from shirting fabric.
Of the latter, it’s easy to make a beeline for the pale blue jacquard look with its tiny flecks of bottle green, and the boyish brown madras check shirt and pants. Both hit a sweet point on the scale between casual and formal, which solves that issue of wanting to project professionalism without resorting to office tailoring. The designer has an artistic playfulness that humanizes—lots of bright color-blocked knitwear, in this case, and a tendency to use ties and tape so the wearer can alter pieces as she will. It will be good to see Cagalj’s view of Ports in motion next month.
Some of what she does well is obscured in these pictures by too many of her abstract tie-ons, but if the superfluous bits are dispensed with, women will have a view of a new go-to resource for living.
