There’s something of the steel magnolia about Susana Clayton. Beneath a cool, soft-spoken demeanor, the Lisbon-born, Paris-trained and -based designer seems to know her mind and, more to the point, exactly who she is talking to. Customers have caught on fast: Joseph’s sales are reported to have tripled since she signed on a year ago.
An architect by training, Clayton has long since transposed her degree to fashion by working, variously, for the trend bureau Peclers before moving into the atelier with Vanessa Bruno, and then racking up high-fashion experience at Chanel, Givenchy (twice, both early and late in Riccardo Tisci’s tenure), and Chloé, and at stateside stints at Gap and Rag & Bone. Most recently, she headed design for Golden Goose in Venice.
“I never set out saying to myself [that] I was going to work with this or that brand, I just sort of went with the flow,” says the 45-year-old designer. As fate would have it, the paths she chose converge neatly at Joseph. “I can totally identify with what Joseph was doing—it’s refined but casual, with that French touch,” she said. “Personally, I feel more French than anything; it’s the school of attention to detail, quality, the high standards.”
Clayton herself looks like the perfect reflection of Joseph’s image, or maybe it’s the other way around. “It’s not too feminine or frilly, it’s confident and solid,” she offered during a visit on set at the shoot for the pre-fall look book. For sure, she cuts a mean pair of trousers, favoring the crisp, travel-friendly qualities of dry wool. She’s also a believer in the masculine/feminine mix, well represented here in the classic allure of a men’s shirt, silk tweeds, lush cashmere, and leather that’s not tricked out, as on a sleeveless caramel dress with a pleated skirt. Another soapbox: outerwear with staying power—a glossy, sleeveless black shearling, a tailored checked overcoat, or a graceful rust-colored cape. If some looks shown here skew a bit boxy, no matter—the Joseph customer knows how to parse her uniform.
Quiet sophistication was the cornerstone of the original Joseph philosophy. With a ’90s aesthetic once again on the rise and so many heritage minimalists MIA, Clayton’s Joseph is shaping up to be a go-to for a base desperately seeking impeccable clothes without any white noise.
