“I’ve always dreamed of going to the Cotton Club.” Stella McCartney was perfectly blunt about how her Pre-Fall event came together. “I just wanted to have a party here.” And some Tuesday night it was, complete with a performance from surprise guest Alicia Keys, singing “Empire State of Mind,” and celebrity sightings in the form of the Seinfelds, Sean Lennon, and Julianne Moore. McCartney has made these biannual preseason happenings a calling card. She’s a feel-good designer, and that goes as much for her clothes as it does for her famous shindigs.
The new collection, as McCartney put it, was noteworthy for its variety. But whether it was a pajama set printed with characters from the British comic The Dandy or a clingy argyle sweaterdress that fell just below the knee, all of it had that trademark McCartney ease. There were head-to-toe knit looks and a head-to-toe denim one, and she showed high-rise, easy-fit jeans with an elongated blazer and square-toe loafers featuring cutaway heels, unfussy and cool in the extreme. On her runway last season, McCartney really owned her anti-leather and anti-fur stance, printing athletically inclined separates with her position on the subject. Here, a “Fur-Free Fur” patch was implanted at the wrist of a roomy faux fur coat.
But we were at the Cotton Club, so it wasn’t all casually minded daywear, Savile Row–inflected suiting, and shaggy-chic outerwear. A sleeveless red dress and a boxy red jacket both shimmied with silk fringe, and a long red trapeze frock in cotton lace had a low-key kind of glamour, which, of course, is another McCartney signature. It was also present in a couple of pairs of cropped pants with deep hems of fluff.
