Fran Stringer has been a cautious colorist at Pringle of Scotland. The last seven or so collections under her hand have been resolutely neutral, a calm, soft-yarned sea of heathery tones and monochrome. Occasional exceptions have included the slaps of primary-colored argyle in Fall ’17’s Lucy Orta collaboration and the opening salvo of Starburst robes in the label’s last Resort outing.
This season, Stringer looked back into the Pringle archives and considered the queasiest, most potentially volatile color group of all: pastels. The house has a long history of using them in all-knit, mid-century looks that appear firmly rooted in their era. Ever judicious, Stringer handled her new-era Pringle pastels with care by considering the balance of Jacques Villon’s canvases and the swathed harmony of turn-of-this-century Yohji Yamamoto.
Her lavender, pistachio, and teal-turquoise cloaks, angularly necklined sweaters, robe coats, and wide pants were knit in alpaca-linen blends or cashmere with a subtle inbuilt contra-color mélange to deepen their impact on the eye. In concert, once styled by Francesca Burns and then placed in situ in Epping Forest, these pieces corralled the potentially off-putting consequences of pastel—loud, sickly, mumsy—via those nods to Yamamoto and Villon, plus Stringer’s fine eye for now.
Yet this was not an all-pastel rodeo. Anyone wishing to fade into a leafy background should consider Stringer’s excellent tweed wide-waisted Harrington jackets and joggers in rust.
Mixed-paneled raker argyle skirts, tank tops and cardigans with ribbed sleeves, fine-gauge sweaters with lion intarsias hand-knit by Scottish grandmothers, and heavy knit abstract argyle sweaters made by grandmothers in Italy were some of the other highlights on Stringer’s racks.
