For his Spring 2016 collection, Cédric Charlier was driven to abstraction—specifically to the work of Victor Pasmore, who is credited with pioneering abstract art in Britain in the first half of the 20th century. Pasmore was a painter and an architect, too, but there was none of that kind of sculptural quality to Charlier’s designs, which, in most cases, were worn away from the body, hanging straight down from the shoulders or cinched at the waist by thick obi-style belts, which also hung loose off the backs of some dresses, trailing behind the models as they walked.
Silhouette was clearly foremost in the designer’s mind. “I was really interested in this T shape,” Charlier explained backstage before the show, tracing the trunk and shoulders of one of the model images on his run of show, and it showed: The shoulders were the strongest point on a majority of looks, with skirts typically ending in a loose ruffle and trousers in a frayed hem. The palette was predominantly neutral, in shades of blush, pink, and peach, occasionally dipping into hunter green, and the fabrics were mostly natural fibers—as Charlier said, he wanted to “stay with cotton and silk for as much of the collection as possible.” It was all designed for day, from the boxy shirtdresses with plenty of hanger appeal to the military-style anoraks done in waxed cotton and cotton jacquard. Most winning were the mixed-print patchwork dresses, which felt hard and soft all at once, with all of the grace of Pasmore’s own Roses in a Jar—only this version you can wear to your next garden party.
