British designer walks the line between feminine and masculine, and cracks the eveningwear conundrum with smart tailoring
Stella McCartney is the type of person to get straight to the point.
The power play between masculine and feminine codes in fashion, territory the British designer has always prowled, has been a recurring theme of this fashion season. So at her Paris Opera house catwalk show, McCartney cut to the chase.
The first outfit was a double-breasted pinstripe suit, the traditional uniform of the gentleman's club and of the most male-dominated workplaces. But into the skirt was inserted an extra circular swirl of fabric which gave a soft, swaying movement as it moved; double-sided stretch material hugged the waist to give the jacket a curving silhouette.
"I didn't just want to take feminine elements and stick them on to a masculine silhouette," McCartney said backstage after the show, "Because that's not how it works. I believe all women have a masculine side to their personality, but that it comes from within them. It's about inner strength, not about surface. So I wanted the flicks and kicks that represent femininity to come from within the pinstripe, rather than be an afterthought.
"A collection is always about an emotion, rather than a look."
"Feistiness?", suggested one reporter. McCartney, precise in all things, shook her head. "No, it's not feisty exactly. That's too aggressive. It's more about an inner strength that runs beneath femininity."
One of the designer's first internships was at Christian Lacroix, the most lavishly flounced and ribboned of Parisian houses, another was with a Savile Row tailor, and both aesthetics run through her label.
Notwithstanding some Stella classics – the grey wool sweater dress, this season with black lace inserts; the coloured coat, this season in deep violet – the centre of gravity of this label continues to shift towards eveningwear. The label has a growing presence on the red carpet, and the modern approach that has won McCartney celebrity fans is bringing in paying customers also.
The designer recently noted that eveningwear can be tricky as much of it tends to be either prematurely ageing, or inappropriately over-youthful. Having identified a gap in the market for eveningwear which is neither deadly sober nor absurdly whimsical, she is making clothes to fill it.
And eveningwear was a highlight of this show, with softly gathered silk dresses in the strapless silhouette enjoying a renaissance led by Raf Simons at Dior, and smartly tailored cocktail pieces with lapel detailing borrowed from the traditions of men's tailoring.