There are only so many preseason collections you can see without them all beginning to blend into one long blur. It’s understood that these collections are essential iterations of everyone’s signatures, but what the memory needs to fix an item on its hard drive is the occasional surprise of something outstandingly beautiful. There it was yesterday in Roksanda Ilincic’s studio—a delight of a dress in pale blue organza. “I suppose it’s the nearest we’ve ever come to couture,” the designer said, smiling. It has balloon sleeves and a voluminous skirt, sprinkled with a thousand minute bubbles, as if an army of fairies had been locked in Ilincic’s basement studio, blowing air into tiny puffs to make into embroideries.
The result is a magical ball gown that looked like something that might have been drawn by an illustrator for the cover of Vogue in the ’30s—although the technique seemed entirely original and fresh. “We developed the fabric here,” she added, showing how she also used the bubbly to cover the surfaces of a black evening cape and a dusty pink peplum blouse.
Aside from that magical outlier, there was the rest of the collection, thought out to fill the wardrobe in more pragmatic Roksanda-like ways. Now that she has her own store on London’s Mount Street, Ilincic is getting to know her customers in person. “We have a lot of mothers and daughters shopping together,” she said. Beginning in June, they’ll be leafing through her long, off-pastel-color shirtwaisters, midi skirts with wavy-edged slits, cropped flares, and embroidered coats. The flouncy short duchesse satin dresses will also be there: “So there’s something the girls might like to wear, too.”
