“It feels like so much is happening right now, and I’m way too sensitive to all of it,” Frederick Anderson said during a preview. “I’m definitely feeling the blues, I think we all are, but I’m trying to work through the malaise.” To accomplish this, he leaned into a celebratory mood, one informed by the many custom requests he says he is receiving for weddings. His color palette was built—no surprise—on a range of blues, working in pops through color-blocking, embellishments, and specialty fabrics like a jacquard and tweed.
Anderson was at his best here creating volume through drape. The lightness of his touch allowed for silks to embrace the body in a way that looked both soft and modern. “We’re all in a soft moment, looking at looseness in the fit,” he said. “Something for the girl who is not wearing structure the way it was done before.” He used piping and seaming to keep garments close without giving pieces a sense of constriction. This was most successful in a denim halter dress with lavender silk binding, and translated the least well in his tailoring, which, cut traditionally close to the body, felt not as loose or soft as he was going for.
Elsewhere, he showed his alpaca mohair knits–which are made in Argentina every season–and worked on fabric manipulations as a way of adding texture and visual interest. A light blue denim overstitched with vertical pink stitches, a gunmetal dress that used both knife pleats and sunburst pleats, and a delicately embellished blouse and skirt showed his keenness for detail work.
Anderson’s work here was fueled by a deeper understanding of his customer’s lifestyle. “This girl may be uptown or downtown or both, but she’s no longer a lady who lunches,” he said, “I like to call her a lady who cocktails, she has things to do during the day.” While much of his proposal felt evening-oriented (particularly the lace dresses and metallic pleats), his silk separates will serve a day-to-night lifestyle with ease. Wrapping things up, he said, “end use is the most important thing, but it’s important that we don’t let end use take away the excitement and fun.” Agreed.
