Moments after the models took their finale lap at the Spring ’18 Céline show, Instagram was blanketed with shout-outs to Phoebe Philo. It seemed like every woman in fashion had something positive to say about the collection. One friend called it “phenomenal,” another declared she wanted “everything.” Few designers inspire such conspicuous devotion, and the ones that do tend to be the fabulists like John Galliano and Rei Kawakubo, talents who create fantastical garments as opposed to the more practically minded yet chic clothes Philo makes—you can’t call a double-layer, looped-up trench “workaday.” Amidst persistent rumors that she’s exiting the label she joined eight years ago, Philo is designing clothes and accessories that absolutely define the look of this time: intelligent, artful, idiosyncratic.
Philo isn’t just influential on the runway—copies of her designs have inspired a clever Instagram hashtag, #TributeBrand—but in her manner of doing business as well. When she opted to withhold her pre-collection photos until the pieces had begun arriving in stores four years ago, a dozen top fashion labels quickly followed suit, while others have since decided to combine their pre-season and main season collections into a single show. Philo presented her 2018 pre-Spring collection last July when editors were in Paris for the couture shows. Thematically, it’s of a piece with the Céline runway show that followed in early October in its emphasis on strong, somewhat oversize tailoring, its touches of delicate lingerie lace, and its embrace of the eccentric hero piece (in both cases, printed, almost sheer turtlenecks).
Reviewing the pictures now, it looks like Philo and her team were workshopping ideas here that morphed somewhere between July and October. Are the large square scarves that drape unexpectedly across the shoulders of V-neck sweaters the progenitors of the large leather scarf bags that appeared on her recent runway? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, they’re distinctive. More Céline trophies in the making.
