Pretty femininity meant renewed focus on the dress, inspired by the 1920’s (remember Miuccia Prada’s dropped waists for autumn/winter 2011/12, but these will chime with Baz Luhrmann’s much-anticipated remake of The Great Gatsby), the 1950’s and 1960’s.
There were couture-cut, slim shirt dresses in clinical white (long for the bride), gingham and paisley at Raf Simons for Jil Sander; jewelled and embellished shifts with razored slits and cutaways at Christopher Kane; and sombre-toned, strong-shouldered and split-to-the-thigh slinks in Alber Elbaz’s sensual, gothic Lanvin collection. Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the sisters behind Rodarte, referenced a hint of “Oklahoma” in their retro dresses with scooped necks, short-sleeves and full, below-the-knee dirndl skirts, while Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana looked to the eternal allure of the Sicilian siren as “kitchen goddess”, in full-skirted dresses printed with enough fruit and vegetables to feed an army. Roland Mouret showed slim, belted, cap-sleeved dresses, some with a hint of Madonna’s “W.E.”, others in strong shades, printed with tulips, while Burberry’s Christopher Bailey dressed his eccentric town-and-country nymph in ivy-green pleated dresses, cinched with tribal belts, and trench-style shirt-dresses with yoke embellishment that hinted at a blend of North Africa and pharaonic adornment. Victoria Beckham defined waists with corsets in body-con dresses, as did McQueen, while Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, in a more chemise-like silhouette, created subtle waist emphasis with a string of pearls. Marc Jacobs, in his own label collection, focused on dance-dresses, embellished with tassels and fringing, inspired by the world of choreographer, Bob Fosse.
Jewellery to dress-up dresses will be as diverse as the silhouettes, hemlines and inspirations. Expect a return of pearls – a “flapper” essential - together with ladylike beads, gothic “eagles”, and full-on, “Pat Butcher” earrings, which, surprisingly, enjoyed a comeback on many catwalks; not least, at Prada and Marni.