Should one require proof that Margaret Howell is able to magically transform even the most prosaic piece of clothing, the kind of thing usually balled up and thrown way to the back of the wardrobe, then consider what she did with the humble boxer short for Spring 2018. Rendering them in pristine black or ecru cotton poplin, concealed fly and elasticated waist intact, she cut them airily and then partnered them with everything from a navy pinstriped blazer to a khaki nylon fatigue jacket, which in turn were accessorized with black ankle socks and buffed and polished black flat Mary Janes. Yep, despite this being a co-ed show, presenting both her women’s and men’s collections, these boxers were strictly for the girls, outwardly, at least. The guys, on the other hand, might have been wearing theirs under their just-above-the-knee crisp, tailored Bermuda shorts, but I couldn’t say that with any certainty. What was plainly evident was how great they looked worn with jaunty graphic shirts, which resembled something a particularly hip jockey might wear, or with Howell’s latest (and hugely covetable) incarnation of the Mackintosh raincoat, now rendered to look like a duffel coat, complete with toggle-and-twine fastenings.
Let’s be clear, though. None of this was a spin on gender duality, or postandrogyny, or such like. Howell’s raison d’être for the four-plus decades of her career is that the pleasure of clothes lies in their functionality, regardless of whether she is designing for men or women; at this label, “fashion” is something to be inhabited and enjoyed, and for a long time at that. In an era of Would Someone Please Take Their Finger Off the Fast-Forward Button of brutal trend after brutal trend, with Howell’s clothes you’re gripped by how the slightest recalibration of something can make you look at it anew. Consider the drop of her jeans for men (a higher and deeper rise), the waist cinched with a sturdy leather belt. Or a series of knit banded tanks for women, body-con but from a bygone age, worn with gently pleated full skirts and yet another variation on shorts. Howell’s Spring lineup was a virtual primer in rigor and restraint, including the limited, but effective, color palette, where a preponderance of black and white was leavened with the aforementioned ecru and a vivid shade of green. That was it, no more, no less. Like the collection itself, it was enough, but it was also everything.
