As shown here, this Petar Petrov collection is worn by Georgina Grenville, who last month turned 43. There have been a fair few “older” models in shows this season—a welcome change more noticeable in Milan than Paris—but it’s still interesting to hear a designer talk about the rationale from his or her point of view. Today, Petrov said of his: “It is right because she represents our customer. The collection, which is at a high price point, should be shown on a person who is older. We want to create an emotion in the customer about wearing the clothes, so I don’t know why you would show someone your clothes worn on someone who is underage. How can they be inspired by a child who is not even 18?”
There was an empirically straightforward bottom-line logic to this, but it chimes nicely with at least one strong gust in the mixed-up mistral spirit of this season: to show clothes worn by women as they can be in the real world, not as they can’t. Petrov is a gifted designer who by no means designs exclusively for older women, but he does lean towards high fabrications in flattering silhouettes that offer the wearer great versatility. His twin poles, as he puts them, are “precise tailoring and fluid femininity,” and there was plenty from both sides on show here.
Starting with the tailoring, linen checks and ginghams or plain color silk viscose jackets were softly cut under a gently structured shoulder. Details like half-sleeve lengths that ended with the sleeve tapering into a ribbon to allow the wearer to drape it around the upper arm (a ploy repeated in several of his boot styles) allowed the wearer aesthetic agency over the pieces. The pants were loose and high-waisted, some featured an attractive twisted piping detail. Jeans in slickly coated green leather featured asides like back pockets apparently cut open at the corner or an overlapping hem detail also seen as a loosening mechanism in the pencil-silhouette skirt that partnered some of the jackets.
One example of Petrov’s propensity for offering garments that combine a sense of display without compromising control are his three styles of loosely cut blouses whose silk-polyester fabrications are shot through with light-catching metallic threads. His full, snake print or striped silk dresses and powdery pink or pale off-white dresses and military split-yoke shirts were all unfussily beguiling clothes for grown-ups.
