It wasn’t just the prospect of riding the Golden Globes’s coattails that convinced Stella McCartney to host her Pre-Fall presentation in L.A. instead of New York this year. “Right now [L.A.] is kind of on fire,” the designer said on the red carpet outside Amoeba Records in Hollywood, a scene as star-studded as the recent awards themselves, before pausing to hug Katy Perry. “It’s full of creativity on every level.”
So, too, was the collection itself, even if it felt almost beside the point amid the chaos of a surprise rock show (George Harrison’s son, Dhani’s, band, Thenewno2, opened, followed by The Beach Boys, Johnny Depp and Marilyn Manson, and more) and a crowd rubbernecking to watch the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Beck, and Mary J. Blige browsing the David Bowie tribute racks.
As for the clothes, they had what McCartney called “a slight eclectic feel” that seemed right at home inside the neon-lit, poster-papered setting. A group of animal-pattern coats in McCartney’s “fur-free fur” caught the eye first—an oversize ocelot-print bomber and short-pile faux-leopard coat piped with fluffy panels telegraphed rock ’n’ roll insouciance. The feline theme continued via a kitschy cat-portrait tapestry jacquard—which felt wearable on a wrap skirt, if not on a tailored coat—and a hand-illustrated cat portrait print on a mixed-media, ’70s-style football-jumper blouse and silk dress.
Yet despite these and other instances of Instagram-baiting fun, McCartney has always designed sharp pieces for the real world, and the collection offered plenty to satisfy the sort of woman who might have last frequented Amoeba during the era of the compact disc or cassette tape. There was a perfect black pantsuit; dramatic new versions of McCartney’s standby cable-knit sweaters; flouncy asymmetrical separates in striped and spotted silks; and spiral-cut eyelet dresses slashed with diagonal zippers. A voluminous tulle overdress in bright persimmon, layered atop a vintage-lingerie-inspired tank and floral jacquard trousers, looked especially lovely as the model swayed to the music.
Still, the accessories were the true crowd-pleasers tonight. A bevy of soon-to-be-It bags included spherical wristlets in the faux animal-print furs, while a giant gremlin ring and charm-bracelet mules upped the whimsy factor even further. The item most likely to incite frenzy? Long-tongued, faux-croc block-heel loafers affixed with giant brass rings that recalled punk piercings. Bowie himself would have rocked them.
