This season, Anne Barge traded the runway for a more informal presentation in a light-filled penthouse at the top of a midtown hotel. The looser format suited the dresses, which felt freer. Barge is an anchor of good taste and classicism, and brides can depend on her for a picture-perfect gown. Naturally, the evolution of such an aesthetic is slow and often limited to embellishments.
Spring’s collection represented a big step forward for Barge. She has black-tie, “high church” down pat; here, she expanded her horizons with low-back dresses, some with whisper-light treatments like reembroidered Alençon lace on tulle, that were easy to imagine at a destination wedding in Portofino or St. Barth’s. Barge’s channeling of the ’60s—Françoise Hardy was on the soundtrack, Bardot bands were in the hair—was a win, whether you are team Bouvier or Hepburn. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine a more perfect dress for latter-day Audreys with their own Cary Grant in the wings than the Raquel, a sleeveless V-neck number with a “couture bow” on the back, worn with elbow-length gloves.
