Ellery (Q3013)
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Ellery is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Ellery |
Ellery is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
If Kym Ellery can make a collection that’s 90% upcycled—as she said of this one—then surely it’s only responsible to recycle an easy gag for its review: This was (another) strong episode of Ellery in Paris. But unlike the TV show that caused so much lockdown hoo-ha (Emily in Paris, duh), Ellery’s look book was set in grittier, less-sanitized pockets of the French capital: “The 11th, the 20th, the 10th, Belleville, Concorde, République…she’s larger than life floating through the city, the real Paris. It’s a window into the life that we experience here, and it’s not as glittery as cliché makes out,” said the designer from her (pretty glittery) showroom.Ellery in Paris was for sure larger than life, a gamine scaled up in post to Godzilla proportions. The color palette, described as “lemon curd, cashew cream, poached pear, roasted almond, rich ganache, black sesame, and charcoal glazing” with “sprinkles of raw cacao and cinnamon and a trickle of fresh raspberry jam” implied urgent desire for hipster patisserie. She loomed outside the desolate Opéra Bastille in a striking black dress with an embroidered panel on a silk tulle base. She blocked a Seine-side cycle lane in kicky white pants and a black top with contrasting lacing falling from the shoulder and a corset, then measured herself against the Colonne de Juillet in a frothily detailed lemon gown. Lace, bouclé (repurposed and Lurex), and froideur-perfect statement trenches (in vegan leather with lace detailing at the collar) were amongst the monuments of Parisian dressing integrated and remixed into this winning Ellery take on her adopted city’s dress codes. This was sophisticated but subtly anti-conservative “French Girl” dressing, light of touch and rendered through a knowledgeable insider-outsider’s eye.
5 March 2021
This collection was 95% deadstock and 100% dress up: Kym Ellery scoured her archives and those of her suppliers for the raw materials for this catalogue of archetypes. “It’s about exploring different personalities, the different characters you can assume,” said the designer from her new showroom in Paris’s 11th arrondissement. “It was about diving into who you are today, but also who you were yesterday and who you can be tomorrow, using fashion as a way to express yourself.”According to her notes, the types Ellery cast through clothing were “the lady, the cowgirl, the espionne, the dominatrix, the equestrian, and the honorable” and during the chat she added “bad ski bunny.” While the corresponding looks worked as costume they were also easily deconstructable for less specific roleplay —or mix-and-match-able to enable the evocation of more layered personalities. A cotton Western shirt with stylized piping would have been at ease beneath a spy’s gabardine trench cinched with an elasticated leather belt. That Agamemnon’s Mask chestplate/burial mask—a sign of the “honorable”—was perfectly transferable to the “dominatrix” fishnet/mesh vest worn north of croc-patterned leather pants.Unshackling the collection from its conceit for a sec, this was a confidently concise overview of this designer’s repertoire of distinctly specific twists on the canonical categories of womenswear. Tying it all back together again—then tuning into Look 16—this was another fun episode of Ellery in Paris.
4 February 2021
The Spice Girls reference in the title of Kym Ellery’s new collection—“When Two Become One”—slightly distracted from the excellence of the concept. In a nutshell, the Australian designer decided to hand over 150 of her existing leftover pieces from past collections to the Dutch designer Duran Lantink. He is a creative salvager, a designer of “new” garments whose whole is the sum of the parts of “old” garments that he scavenges, takes apart, and reengineers. Commended in last year’s International Fashion Showcase (he was pipped to the post by Thebe Magugu), Lantink showed an installation there showcasing clothes that grafted Celine with fast fashion. In this collaborative capsule everything was Ellery.Of the process she said, “It was so interesting to take something, like, not quite deadstock, but something that as a garment has an almost negative energy to it, and rework it to lend it a new freshness and identity, a second life.”It seems rather brave for a designer to hand over her work to be melted down and resculpted, but Ellery added: “I really wanted to give him space to have time with the garments and to do whatever he wanted. To be honest, I found the whole thing really refreshing.” Lantink’s vivid chop shop process created “new” garments that were fashioned from up to four “old,” she added.At that point our WhatsApp went three-way as Lantink himself dropped into the call. He said: “This is the first time I’ve ever worked with material from a single brand. It was interesting because when I work with material from different brands you don’t really have to think about them, you can really express your own identity. But working with Ellery, I had to figure out how you don’t lose that brand’s identity while also staying true to myself. I had all those archive pieces and I took them out and then set myself the puzzle of putting them back together in a new way.” The DIYness of Lantink’s process spiced his raw Ellery ingredients with a tougher, almost punkish, edge hitherto unseen, while the story of the process of these garments renders them feel-good purchases to relish wearing daringly. Win-win.
1 October 2020
Good on ya to Brendan Berne, Australia’s ambassador to France, who allowed Kym Ellery to shoot her fall 2020 collection look book and movie in his handsome Parisian residence. It was a fittingly swanky backdrop for a collection in which Ellery explored and expanded her instinct for irreverent luxury dressing, aimed at “a woman who is going to work. She’s busy. I imagined that she’s from the 1980s, but then she definitely has a smartphone. So she’s modern-day. She’s got a big dog, and she likes to party.” This haphazard tarot-card profile manifested itself in various ways. A lovely irregular gray herringbone coat featured extended neck flaps and removable marabou trim at the cuffs and top left pocket: The pocket trim was attached via a magnet, so it could be thrown back onto the garment. The herringbone returned in a miniskirt teamed with a cropped black power-shouldered and pussy-bowed black duchesse top. A fine flecked charcoal-on-white knit fabric was fashioned into a full-armed minidress worn with musketeer slouchy thigh-highs. Shirts and shirtdresses in crumpled-finish black and white leather with chunky metallic fastenings were tough. A khaki drill trench came with a detachable zippered cloak designed for dramatic gestures.Tailoring pieces saw stripped seams inverted to feature and delineate the outside of soft exaggerated volume suiting. Printed blouses, skirts, and dresses featured a “running man” print reminiscent of Matisse’s dancers, and a plain silk one-shoulder slip dress in ivory silk was encircled by a softly descending spiral of pink ostrich trim. A wing-fronted strapless silk minidress in black came with two truncated built-in panniers at the thigh, an interesting exaggerated top-and-bottom garment that also expanded the presence of its wearer. Ellery’s considerably mixed-up sensibility delivers designs that undercut their classicism just enough to feel discreetly subversive.
3 March 2020
This collection from Kym Ellery was, interestingly, inspired by the ancient Athenian philosopher of happiness, Epicurus. Said the designer: “I was really interested in the idea that his philosophy was to enjoy the finer things in life in general, but also that you only need three things to be happy: friendship, freedom, and thought. And working in this industry, I just thought that was a fascinating concept. Also, I read that his philosophy got misconstrued into luxury. So this is a starting point of the collection, and I wanted to contrast some simpler things with more excessive things. I liked this story that he started a commune outside of Athens, where they threw wild orgies: That inspired some of the pieces.”Chain necklaces, link bracelets, and bronze earrings designed to resemble a breast were hints toward the Hellenic slap-and-tickle on Ellery’s radar, as were the piercing style fastenings on many of the garments. Long draped pastel dresses, cinchable with shoelace-thin vegan leather cord, were serene and stately. A black vegan-leather trench with scarlet belt buckles hinted again at excess. A fitted black dress lined with monochrome ostrich feather and a print of an extraordinarily long-billed duck of a species Ellery could not identify were avian asides. A white, chevron-shaved off-the-shoulder top, a silk patchwork dress in diagonal neutral stripes, and the dresses and shoes dyed in two ranges of four appealing stripes of color were all garments you could imagine generating happiness.Under questioning, Ellery conceded that the reason one of her commercial collection T-shirts has a map of Antarctica on it is that her great-great-grandfather was the famous explorer Ernest Shackleton. Wow! As well as being stranded near the South Pole in pack ice and nearly perishing on the escape, Shackleton is famous for purportedly placing this marvelous ad in theLondon Times: “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful…”At the end of Fashion Month, you can, like, relate.
1 October 2019
Half-kidding, Kym Ellery calls her resort outing her “desert island collection.” That’s because “these are clothes to live and die in,” she explains.Now, after three and a half years living in Paris, Ellery has finally made the complete transition to Europe, staffing up her studio and shifting production from her native Australia to Italy, mainly.That opens up a lot of new possibilities, fabrics- and logistics-wise, and Ellery is clearly having fun mixing things up, pairing crinkled, fine-knit canary sleeves with a beige fabric overcoat, for example. She used the same color scheme to make a case for the return of the stirrup pant (it also comes in black faux leather) and turned it sideways on a horizontally striped dress trimmed in fringe with a lashing of rhinestones.Playing with shine is another one of Ellery’s loves: She has a burgeoning jewelry line (the metallic daisy bra will probably travel to fashion shoots all over the place) and has just developed metallic rhinestone pulls for her ’70s-inspired separates. Elsewhere, she seized on a piece of op art from her childhood bedroom, transposing it onto a wide metallic wave on an oversized blush pantsuit.If Ellery’s base relies on her for any one thing, it’s statement-making tops. This season, the designer delivered with Renaissance-worthy shoulders that were held up with chunky metallic chains—complete with a corset belt and finer chains at the waist—or cascaded into her signature elongated sleeves. Practical? Not if you’re living on a desert island. Dramatic? Definitely.
30 June 2019
You don’t always lose when you snooze. As a youngster in Karratha, a remote mining town in North West Australia, Kym Ellery says she used to doze and dream of becoming a fashion designer—maybe even one based in Paris. Today, shortly after bustling in off the Boulevard Saint-Germain, rain-drenched, she said, “I was thinking back to me as a young woman who grew up in the desert nurturing this dream . . . and now here we are: So where does the dream end and the reality begin?”In a literal-sounding but subtly applied process, Ellery incorporated elements of her childhood environment and her own formative juvenile creative reveries into the garments. The camel cashmere dresses lined with pink silk satin were on-purpose riffs on the old-fashioned blankets she remembers from back then, as was the diamond-quilted doona (Australian for “comforter”) cape. The springily upholstered volumized check suits and skirts were a nod to the Australian school uniform, and the snake-print technical trench and separates with freshwater pearl belt buckles were, as references, outback souvenirs. The swirly print was a rendering of the crazy abstract shapes you see when you fly over Australia with your head pressed against the window.The answer to Ellery’s question at the top was this collection, in which the decorative bric-a-brac of origin and memory played fairy-dust sprinkle on an offer of attractive clothing. And even if you did not know the difference between a doona and a schooner, it was still a territory worth exploring.
5 March 2019
Who says that limitations can’t foster creativity? Sometimes it’s quite the contrary. Kym Ellery’s Pre-Fall collection had all the ingredients to make it a proposition strong enough for the catwalk. The designer’s most interesting characteristic, which is an artsy, progressive approach to shapes, volumes, and proportions, was well in evidence, smartly translated into believable, desirable pieces. As she said, “They’re unique but easy to wear.”There’s a romantic modernity in Ellery’s vision, a compelling interest in nostalgic silhouettes reinvented for today. This season, she looked for inspiration in what she called simpler times. The conservative lifestyle of Amish communities and the free-love spirit of the ’70s in Britain and America seemed to be apropos. They’re rather opposite aesthetics, really, but the duality fueled a balancing game of deconstruction, with architectural, almost severe elements softened by feminine flourishes.Cases in point were the cascading sculptural frills that punctuated the collection and the bibs that merged with leather minidresses, as well as the small handkerchief-hemmed aprons–slash–ruched corsets worn with shirts featuring exaggerated cuffs. On the same note, voluminous round sleeves introduced an almost Elizabethan flair, contrasting in black leather on a linear white dress. The same imaginative audacity was highlighted by the elaborate pearl bras and bibs decorating wide-leg pantsuits, as well as the artsy handcrafted belt buckles carved from mother-of-pearl. Tailoring and outerwear were proposed in oversize versions; a classic trenchcoat got the deconstruction treatment via a bold take on cut. Ankle grazing and slightly padded, it looked like it could weather even the chilliest French snowstorm.
28 January 2019
During lockdown Kym Ellery took the opportunity to look, really look, at the 16 collections she has presented at breakneck pace since transporting her brand to Paris four years ago. This inspection, she recounted via a WhatsApp call from her summer sanctuary in Sardinia, led her to some existentially confronting questions.These included: Did she want to go on designing at all? (“There was a time of doubting it all, absolutely.”) Then came: If Ellery continued, how would it change? (“Through learning to be grateful, exploring the identity and intention of the brand, and using the time of quietness to define what I want to bring to the future.”) And how would she characterize the upshot of these contemplations? (“Comfort and ease of dressing is really desired now…it’s not about dressing up too much, and certainly not about ‘event dressing,’ but about being versatile. What remains important is the act of getting dressed; that remains a big part of my life, to wake up and want to put on a beautiful look that gives me energy and confidence.”)The result, much of it crafted with deadstock from past collections, is a portfolio of clothing in which Ellery worked to retain the essence of her aesthetic while stripping away the superfluous. Preserved was her penchant for full-skirted dresses lent difference with asymmetric hemlines or empoweringly strong shoulders, but presented in a tightly arranged range of fabrications spanning leather and cotton. As well as the fabrics, many of the designs were repurposed from those previous 16 Parisian presentations, part of a conscious process of revisiting and reviving that Ellery undertook via consultation with trusted confidantes about their most-cherished archive pieces. Restrained lace detailing played against an overwhelmingly monochromatic palette—with lilac and sky-blue exceptions—and Ellery returned to her beefily shouldered, high-waisted jacket shapes in a tailored counterbalance to the loosely swoosh-y dress proposals. As for many other independent designers, this season represents a moment of relative stillness before spring 2021’s promise of a repurposed reemergence. Ellery hinted that hers will represent a considerable shift in both process and product, revealing more answers to those big 2020 questions.
25 August 2020
Art runs into Kym Ellery’s family. Her mother is an artist, and before turning fashion designer, Ellery’s natural habitat was in the art world. “I see our woman as an art collector,” she said. “An intelligent woman, looking for something she can curate, a wardrobe that speaks to her for a lifetime and not just for the now.”Ellery felt that now was the time to “take a step back and have a look at what I’ve done,” after launching her collection 13 years ago. “It’s so easy today to lose oneself in the hype, with this constant release of collections, information, visual imagery, and products everywhere,” she continued. “So it’s important to ask: Who are we among this noise?” Revisiting her archival evergreens seemed the right thing to do. She edited old pieces and updated whatever needed to be refreshed in a process not only of reflection but almost of new self-discovery. Spending time in the mountains provided the rarefied, meditative atmosphere she needed, which also inspired the attitude of the pre-fall collection. Being an accomplished photographer, she even shot the look book’s images herself in St. Moritz.Powerful tailoring with an imaginative twist on proportions is one of Ellery’s fortes. Here the designer reworked the strong-shouldered silhouette she favors, adding artsy details like the elegant hardware she designs—a removable tasseled gold metal chain crisscrossing the sides of a sharp-cut masculine coat, for instance—or the soft corsetry she strapped over a candy-floss-pink bouclé redingote and a vegan-leather black greatcoat with assertive drop shoulders.Picking up on the mountain feel, relaxed après-ski knit ensembles in wool mélange had a ’70s flair, with elongated tunics worn over flared pants. A draped bodysuit paired with sporty Lycra leggings made for a rather dramatic moment. It’d look perfect for an evening out after a day on the slopes, making for a head-turning entrance at St. Moritz’s Chesa Veglia.
24 January 2020
Kym Ellery said her starting point for this collection wasThe Sound of Ice Melting, a 1970 installation piece by Paul Kos in which eight microphones record two blocks of ice in a room temperature space, and the result is played over speakers. She said: “I love the existential nature of the artwork, and I wanted to approach the collection in a similar way and to take very ambiguous references from the work.”These references included the drapey, drippy scarf that hung suspended from the button and waist of an off-white tailored jacket, the droplet-like inset clear resin nodules that cascaded vertically down the blue skirt of a black-topped dress with tied cutaways above each hip, plus the silvery finish of a metal-coated nylon mac and chest-peplumed full-length dress in an opaque ice cube pattern. A fun one was the dinosaur print that riffed on Delftware. The bra tops came inset with sequins set in a snowflake pattern.The Kos effect was less evident in the ruched, long floral dress worn over tie-ankled tailored pants, or the asymmetrically skirted tailored jackets and frock coats whose arms were inset with stripes of lace stitched with a deconstructed Ellery signature logo. Ellery sort of said—via a bit of extrapolation—that she makes complicated-looking clothes that feel easy to wear. Certainly, there was a lot of careful playing with distortedly unconventional volumes and detail here, yet these flourishes didn’t compromise function. And, as she mentioned a few times, there’s a retro element, too, visible especially in the pocketed flat-fronted and top-stitched long purple skirt, the Prince of Wales check skirtsuit, and the blue flared rib-knit look. Will it set the world on fire? No. But this collection was easy enough to warm up to.
25 September 2018
Australian designer Kym Ellery appears to be succeeding at one of the trickiest moves in the business: Having won success abroad and fans among the likes of Rihanna, Solange Knowles, and Elle Fanning, she’s on track as an indie in Paris. In the two years since she moved here, her impromptu dinner parties have become a hot ticket, too.For Spring, her namesake label continues to highlight a love of retro-leaning style while sampling from across the ages. The designer recently learned, for example, that her ancestry includes a Huguenot woman named Nora Gravelle who fled France for Ireland four centuries ago. That distant French connection inspired her to “create a closet full of the best pieces that I feel might have been worn by the many women who contributed to me being here today,” she explained. “I consider myself an extension of her.” Closer to our times, a quirky cowgirl boot with an angled, square toe nodded to a great-grandmother who once pioneered the Outback. (Just for the record: Ellery’s own parents are from New Zealand and her father is Maori.)Her freestyle riff across time included plenty of the ample, flowing shirts her clients love, crossed with historical references, like a corset-inspired cropped white top with flowing sleeves, in Lycra. Corseting cropped up again on hybrid high/low-waisted trousers, jersey dresses, and in contrasting stitching on a trench (which put this reviewer in mind of Jean Paul Gaultier).Ellery also honed in on handmade embellishments, with mesh brassieres and tunics made of silver circles or macramé-wrapped metal discs—layering them over a tie-dye jersey dress or a cropped top and flares, for example. On cotton shirting or a laminated jacket, it took on a more underground attitude, but a first foray into logo messaging in mesh-like print was less convincing. Ellery’s signature is strong enough; she doesn’t need to go that route.Looking toward the near horizon, Ellery is busy ramping up her studio. Some of the Syndey design team is on its way to Paris, and she has a handful of new recruits from some of the top names in the industry. It may be early days to start thinking about heritage, but come Fall her French roots will be solid. Paris can take note: She intends to stay for good.
30 June 2018
Kym Ellery called this collection Chapter Two as a continuation of what she presented on the Haute Couture calendar back in January. From a showroom in the heart of Paris, she noted how staggering her Fall lineup and bypassing the ready-to-wear schedule “creates more time,” which matters now that she is increasing French workmanship and rethinking her sales strategy. Fair enough. What made less sense, at least initially, was the sight of several full-length dresses hanging lifeless on racks when they could have been worn down the runway, especially given that haute couture encourages dialed-up drama. As Ellery explained it, that offering was intended to project a “more approachable” vision of made-to-order clothes that girls like her would consider buying and wearing. “I wanted to show the process and artisans rather than be super-gown-y,” she said.And yet, if the Ellery girl has the means to splurge on couture jackets, her lifestyle likely requires a gown or two. In contrast to her characteristically ample volumes, these options were bias-cut and body grazing (as proof, she used the wordlitheover and over again). They came in sophisticated black velvet, a showier metallic devoré woodblock effect; and caramel, hot pink, or violet liquid lame that conjured up Cardi B channeling Old Hollywood.In fact, Ellery said her muse was actually an art collector—the type of woman who would appreciate irregular, shell-type buttons, gradient metal spangles, and pearl beads outlining the breast. More broadly, she would gravitate toward a PVC trench with asymmetric detailing and classically tailored black pants with a removable waist ruffle because they were just left of classic. Ellery’s usual flair for flare yielded a black leather top with fluted sleeves and contrast stitching that gave off an easy allure, offsetting the extra effort that must have gone into the unnecessary double sleeves elsewhere. Up close, the quilting of a black dress and ivory cape revealed stitching in the shape of a vase and a face respectively—shapes that originated from abstract art source material, although the exact inspirations eluded her. Checkered velvet bell-bottoms shown with white pumps boasting a tortoiseshell-effect heel were a quirkier expression of her collector concept. Which brings us back to the dresses; Chapter Two’s standout looks hovered between cool/questionable taste in a way that was worth the wait.
30 March 2018
Backstage at her first show during the haute couture, Australian designer Kym Ellery, who’s been based in Paris for two years now, was discussing working with the artisans who helped her create the collection. Ellery had asked the head seamstress, “Is it couture?” and the woman had replied that, yes, it was indeed. Ellery might have been seeking affirmation on the level of craftsmanship on a jacket—and perhaps, looking at the bigger picture here, her aspirations for herself as a designer and for her label—yet it is a pretty pertinent question, looming large over this debut. What is couture, indeed? Sixty percent of what she put on the runway at the École Nationale Supérieure Des Beaux-Arts on Tuesday afternoon was strictly intended as such; that is, made-to-order, fitted directly onto the client, virtually unique.The collection, which was inspired by the notion of collecting and curating, dipped magpie-like from the work of Mies van der Rohe to the heiress-gone-gaga chic of Peggy Guggenheim. It was filled with things like a claret trapunto satin blanket-cape over a pink oversize trouser suit, and a lean black-and-white 1970s-feel coat with a black bow half-belt, worn with flared black pants. A tweedy jacket, naked at the back save for the ties that held it in place, came atop a billowing black ball skirt that looked like something a punky reincarnation of Dovima might wear; the same skirt morphed into a more formal gown at one point, too. Ellery claims there’s a real demand for those kinds of pieces from her.No one should fault designers for wanting to think big, push themselves to take risks, and all those other things we keep urging them to do. Ellery’s positive, upbeat attitude to throwing herself into producing haute couture is admirable. And then there’s the fact that she has developed a loyal global following for her brand of quirky, cultivated dressing that places the idiosyncrasies and foibles of women at its heart.In this she’s traversing the same territory that Phoebe Philo did in her decade at Céline. There have been comparisons drawn between the work of these two designers, and to her credit Ellery takes mention of referencing in her stride. “The same way that some architects reference other architects, and some musicians reference other musicians?” she said, laughing, then went on to say, “We’re living in a digital age, where it’s incredibly saturated. Designers have been put into this rat race to create all the time.
It would be naive to think that sometimes things don’t look like something else. I’m not ashamed to say I have some fashion images on my board that are from other designers, but I’m not creating a whole collection around them. In the course of research, you see something old that someone had referenced recently, and think, ‘Oh that’s where it came from.’”She’s not wrong. Plenty of designers reference other designers, including Philo herself; remember the Geoffrey Beene coat? Yet in Philo’s hands, her references came out as something else, something which managed to transcend the sum of its parts. That wasn’t quite the case here. When Ellery first started out, she offered a great array of wardrobe basics that were anything but basic; super-wearable and easy, they had sharp and interesting twists. Those ultra-flared pants she did from the get-go are a case in point. Moving to Paris, competing on that tough and unforgiving stage, isn’t easy. But it would be great if Ellery would strip away some of the design bells and whistles, couture or not, and bring it back to pieces that speak more clearly to the way she started out. Given the space left by Philo’s exit from Céline, there are going to be plenty of women who’ll be crying out for them.
23 January 2018
Where is the future of fashion headed? That question is currently reverberating at every level of the industry, and designer Kym Ellery sought to answer it this season with an event that turned the runway format in on itself. She staged and filmed a show without guests prior to the presentation—perhaps as exclusive as Fashion Week gets? Well, not quite. By releasing that video online at the same time that she opened the doors up to editors and buyers today, she gave her fans virtual front row access.So how exactly did the clothes fit into this conceptual experiment? They were inspired, explained Ellery, “by the forward-thinkers of the 20th century, those who questioned the speed of light and time travel.” The Paris-based Australian designer has always had a soft spot for the 1960s, and filtered retro-futurist references into her signature statement blouses and flared pants. The extreme proportions of her popular bell-bottoms were restrained in slouchy trousers that tied at the ankle and slightly modish cropped jeans. Ellery has toyed with more historical silhouettes in the past, including the Victorian dress, and she gave that empire-line shape a twist of tomorrow with minimalist wired cotton. Still, the groovy beat of the label wasn’t totally lost in space, with crushed velvet suiting and slinky turtlenecks.The brand has forged ahead with its accessories business in the past few seasons, and this time around there was an entire room at the presentation dedicated to Ellery’s new cosmic jewelry. The golden sunburst earrings, brooches, and cowrie shell chokers that were arranged like planets in the solar system had a cool, witchy charm. There were several collectibles in the shoe department as well, including an ankle bootie with a Perspex heel that had a miniature planet earth floating inside. Wherever fashion will end up in the long run, the short-term future of those trophy pieces seems pretty bright.
29 September 2017
Australian-born designer Kym Ellery recently moved her business from Down Under to Paris, and her Fall collection was a reaction to the bourgeois codes of chic she has encountered in places like the Avenue Montaigne. She injected a little Texan flavor into that look for Resort, loosening up the familiar, soigné silhouette of her runway last season, and others before hers, with some western glamour. The all-black power suit got a nice dose of cool with contrast white piping and the beloved cowboy shirt was rendered as a sophisticated button-up midi dress or finished with finely spun fringing. Ellery took the idea of fringing in a more Eastern direction on a kimono-style floral dress, upping the ante on the statement sleeve in a dramatic, eye-catching way.That said, the ruffled statement blouse is still the brand’s bread and butter, and there were several Victorian styles in crisp cotton at a more approachable price point. The notion of the “forever” dress—that precious, fashion keepsake—has been coming through on the runways of Paris lately, and Ellery addressed it in her own way, via a romantic puff-sleeved dress made from English silk taffeta with a rarefied, Marie Antoinette-like hand. The signature, ’70s-inspired bell-bottoms are still in rotation—and selling like hotcakes in denim—though they weren’t the only voluminous pants in the mix. The new Ellery trouser on the block has a high-waisted, slouchy look that’s poised to make a big impression on the street style circuit and beyond.
10 June 2017
Kym Ellery moved to Paris from Australia last year, settling in Le Marais, which is still one of the city’s coolest neighborhoods. She’s been particularly mesmerized by the dress codes of the most bourgeois parts of town, including the famous Avenue Montaigne, known asLa Grande Dameof luxury shopping destinations. Ellery’s references were clear in the tailored glen check looks that opened the show, which jibed with the buttoned-up, business-first aesthetic that has been popping up all month long.Still, you can take the girl out of Sydney, but you can’t take Sydney out of the girl, or at least not the laid-back, hippie spirit of the Australian city. A psychedelic streak ran through the collection, and was most apparent in the swirling tie-dye-style prints that were created by Ellery’s mother, a textile designer. They were most effective on the slinky turtleneck sweaters and the Latex-coated midi-length lace dresses in the lineup.Bourgeois aspirations aside, Ellery’s approach to fashion has always had a bohemian vibe, and her trademark extreme flares and bell-sleeved blouses were instantly recognizable in the crowd that gathered at the show. She explored the idea of statement sleeves with fringing this season, and the movement of those all-black looks was reminiscent of the witchy drama she has conjured in the past. Accessories are becoming a solid part of Ellery’s business, with trippy, lava-lamp-like Perspex-heeled ankle boots grounding her cropped pants. The sculptural mismatched earrings of spring were updated with pieces that appeared like miniature modernist light fixtures out of some chic Parisian living room, an unexpected French twist that will translate easily into a cool girl wardrobe.
7 March 2017
What does “soul” look like? Kym Ellery knows what it sounds like—Nina Simone, singing “Feeling Good” or “Sinnerman” or “Mississippi Goddam.” But how do you translate that feeling into clothes? Ellery chose to communicate feeling through, well, feeling. This was a collection rich in texture, with starring roles for luxe materials such as deep-pile velvet, curly sheepskin, stretch corduroy, and pleated Swiss tulle, with cameos by elements like ruching and the flocked stripes on certain shirting. Ellery’s latest demanded, first of all, to be touched.But this collection made a forceful visual impact, too. Ellery’s silhouettes were forceful: She articulated a strong waist, and evolved, in various ways, the voluminous sleeves she’s long preferred; she also punctuated her lean silhouettes with sculptural flounces, and completed the variety of Ellery-signature bell-bottoms on offer with a range of sharply cut flares. The flares numbered among the items inflecting this outing with a strong ’70s vibe; others included the safari-inspired looks, and the houndstooth coat with detachable fur collar, cuffs, and hem. The earthy palette helped, too.There were a lot of ideas here; too many to list, really. It’s to Ellery’s credit that she made them all cohere. A few ideas jumped out, at the level of detail. One was the iridescent glint given off by standout fabrications like the coat made, in part, from the kind of plastic film used in the cassette tape, and the metallic wink of jewelry hardware. Another key motif was Ellery’s artful lacing, which imbued several pieces with a winningly louche vibe. Yet another was the graphic topstitching that punctuated the shapes of several garments. Ellery likes big effects, but she’s gotten savvy about her quiet gestures, too. This collection’s rhythm of whispers and shouts established an overall tone you might describe, as—yes—soulful.
12 January 2017
Kym Ellery is looking to toughen up the look of her minimalist bohemian aesthetic this season. With cool biker chicks on Ellery’s Spring 2017 mood board, the extreme flared trousers and witchy bell sleeves that she’s known for took on different proportions today. Her rendition of classic moto pants was exactly what you'd expect: cropped at the ankle with a gentle flare and replete with heavy metal ring pulls and zippers. The Australian designer has been experimenting with the idea of track pants lately—and the best in show were high-waisted and came with a floor-sweeping hemline.Ellery’s spin on the biker jacket was less recognizable. In fact, the ruched sleeves on one sandy-colored piece were moreGame of ThronesthanEasy Rider—and all the better for it. Paired with a long tiered skirt, the overall look was a nice evolution of the line’s dramatic silhouettes. There were several iterations of the curvilinear shirtdresses that have been percolating for the past few seasons too. The standout frocks had a slinkier line, though. (Picture mesh-like turtleneck dresses studded with flower embellishments—a cool combination of rebel and romance.)The label recently added footwear to its growing business and it’s easy to understand why the trendy block-heeled boots are marching out of the stores. Accessories fans looking to stand out might want to check out Ellery’s jacquard stomper boots that lace up past the thigh—a statement piece that’s well worth its weight.
4 October 2016
Kym Ellery isn’t the kind to subscribe to conventional notions of sexy; in her hands the classic date-night dress is anything but tight, short, or sweet. And yet unpacking the idea of skin-revealing clothing was clearly something of a priority for the designer this season—the first look in the new collection features a racy mesh turtleneck that leaves little to the imagination. When you consider that Alejandro Jodorowsky’s movieHoly Mountain, a ’70s surrealist fantasy in which most of the cast wonders around in bizarre states of undress, was Ellery’s main source of inspiration, then that overt display of the body makes a little more sense. Still, it’s the subtler flashes of skin that make for the best eye candy, like the plunging deep-V on an ankle-length crisp white shirtdress, and the shoulder cutouts on a very pretty printed silk peasant dress. In fact as far as exploring new and uncharted territory goes, the bold woodcut pattern on that very frock is an unexpected and exciting addition to the Ellery playbook, one that gives the label’s signature minimalist silhouette an appealing sense of romance.As any street style star north of Sydney will tell you, it’s the brand’s billowing flares that put it on the map. This time around, the attention is squarely at shoulder level, with an array of different statement sleeves—ruffled, ruched, leg-of-mutton—that would make for an Instagram photo op on the sidewalk of just about any fashion capital. Having successfully launched denim a couple of seasons ago, the Australian brand is expanding its accessories offering, too, with a full shoe collection launching for Resort. After the mismatched Calder-inspired statement earrings, the sculptural Chelsea boot is a trophy piece cool girls will want to take home for keeps. And if you thought atheleisure was a dirty word, then the bell-sleeved sweatshirt and slouchy racing-stripe track pants might change your mind.
10 June 2016
A corset isn’t something that most of us will be used to putting on in the morning, yet it was that seemingly archaic piece of clothing that KymElleryhad on her mind for Fall 2016. “I was thinking about how a corset might be relevant to today’s woman,” said Ellery backstage. “So I went about deconstructing the turn-of-the-century garment and reconstructing it in a modern way.” Rather than lacing the silhouette into a tight, trussed-up bundle as you might expect, the Australian designer focused on liberating the body. The most obvious signs of the hourglass waist-cincher were all coming undone, belting a floor-length coat and minimalist black dress with what looked like a single top button. Ellery generally likes her proportions to run on the oversize end of the scale, and the mannish coats came with boned panels in the back that only emphasized their boxy shape.On the topic of volume, the signature extreme flares made several appearances in the collection, including one cropped pair in Japanese denim. Those jeans were a small sampling of the brand’s first foray into denim, with a range of six styles that included a slouchy boyfriend cut in addition to its best-selling bell-bottoms. Ellery also rolled out her first shoe collection, and with sturdy thigh-high boots in the mix, she hit on the big footwear trend of fashion month, though tamer styles, like the blue velvet ankle boots, struck a stronger note. More signs of corsetry showed up in the lacing along jacket sleeves and shrunken vests, and the freshest application of the theme was in streaming ribbons with eyelets that whittled the waist of a gold dress. Overall the lamé and velvet frocks in shades of red, blue, and black stood out the most—cool evening looks that had all the ease of a blouson. The single gold statement earrings that swung at the shoulder like Calder sculptures were a nice idea too. Chances are, savvy street style stars from Sydney to Shanghai will take a shine to them.
8 March 2016
Australia’s KymElleryhas always had an affection for a high-drama silhouette. With her new collection, she proved that she has developed a knack for distilling the drama down to a telling gesture or two. The telling gesture was what made for the magic in the work of Bob Fosse. The choreographer behind such seminal shows such asChicago and Cabaret, Fosse served as Ellery’s seasonal muse.The louche atmospherics of both of those productions was more suggested than spelled out here; the leopard-print goatskin and tonal jacquard gave a hint. Elsewhere, Ellery nodded at their costuming via her use of Lurex and fishnet, as well as in the collection’s running theme of coal-black looks punctuated by graphic buttons or hardware. More generally, she paid homage to dancers, cutting her clothes closer to the body than usual and making a motif of fluidity. Sometimes that was found in a soft silk midi dress in black or a pussy-bow blouse with a draped front; sometimes the fluidity was incorporated in unexpected ways into pieces of mannish tailoring, such as the suedelike cupro trench with a detachable peplum. Nowhere was the sense of jazzy movement more palpable, though, than in Ellery’s latest iteration of her signature flares: This time out, they came cropped and taut as tights and with a shimmying, circular-cut bell.If the showiest looks were the ones like the pouf-sleeve blouse that amped up the volume on the silhouette to 11, the touch of brilliance was to be found in one of the collection’s inspired details. On several pieces, ranging from a seemingly simple blue button-down to a blouse with sleeves in Lurex fishnet, Ellery had threaded ribbon through the arm in tribute to all those dancer-y things that tie and cinch. The ribbon could be tightened up to adapt the shape of the sleeves, and the effect, especially in the fishnet, was both original and appealing. A small gesture, to be sure, but as Bob Fosse well knew, it’s the right little one that counts.
15 January 2016
Kym Ellery’s inspiration this season was the 1969 workWrapped Coastby Christo and Jeanne-Claude, which found the famed land artistes covering one and a half miles of rocky Sydney coastline in tarp. The reference was legible, on a literal level, in the clothes that Ellery showed this morning, but it almost worked better as a metaphor for her development as a designer in the past year: Ellery has always exuded a vast ambition, but she seems now to have made peace with the idea that the only way to execute her ambitions is to discipline them, strap them down.The designer’s evolved sense of rigor was nowhere better demonstrated here than in her approach to volume. She still likes her clothes to take up lots of space, but she found lots of ways in this collection to control her volumes, or concentrate them into small, significant gestures. An example of the latter were Ellery’s artfully suspended bell-shaped sleeves; one particularly good instance of the former was the navy silk sundress that she’d gathered, here and there, to create rows of soft pleats. Ellery’s volumes felt targeted and specific, in other words.With volume playing a supporting role, much of the drama of this collection came from its fabrications. Ellery is a textile obsessive, and she deployed some outstanding ones this season—velvets printed in a sea-pod pattern; a feathery cream-colored knit fused to create weight; cloudy jacquard; crepes, silks, and shirting cottons with an ultra-luxe hand. You didn’t have to get close to the clothes to appreciate the excellence of the materials; it was self-evident from the way everything draped. Ellery’s standout material, though, was the crinkly metallic fabric she used in her show’s terrific closing looks. Ellery showed off her design maturity in those looks by not gilding the lily—the fabric was gilded enough, all it required was a simple, pencil-snug shape.
6 October 2015
There's a reason certain muses show up on mood boards over and over again. This season, Kym Ellery became maybe the zillionth designer to seize inspiration from Anita Pallenberg, and her sharp little collection reminded you why: That Pallenberg look is just durably cool. So, so cool. Ellery's take wasn't a straight-up homage, however. A '70s rock-chick vibe was filtered through the designer's vocabulary of soft tailoring and staple pieces with a sculptural flourish. Ellery also kept things fresh by dipping into one of the lesser-known aspects of the Pallenberg mythos: her interest in the occult. That reference occasioned some of the more intriguing looks here, like the lightweight velvet slipdresses punctuated by metal hardware and worn over the signature Ellery flare, done in printed, semi-sheer georgette. You could also pick up a witchy vibe in the collection's long, gossamer black dresses, like the body-hugging one in mesh. The standout piece, though, was Ellery's reinterpreted tailored flare: This time out, she showed them cropped, with a dramatic bell. Worn with a super-fuzzy teddy jacket, the look had the insouciance one associates with Pallenberg. But it was pure Ellery, really.
11 June 2015
Founder: Kym Ellery, founder and designerYear established: 2007Known for: Editorial-inspired drama with distinct wearability, maximalist proportions, French sophistication with Australian ease, unfussy color palettes, and '60s and '70s referencesWorn by: Solange Knowles, Rihanna, Nicole Richie, and Australian starlets at international premieresSpring/Summer 2015 inspirations: David Bowie's alter egos, the Thin White Duke and Ziggy Stardust, and the Expressionist nudes of artist Egon Schiele
13 April 2015
Kym Ellery's venue choice was as risky as it was sublime, what with the art (a Francis Bacon above the fireplace, two works from Matisse by the stairs), a Japanese garden, and an upper-level lap pool—all within the Paris apartment once belonging to Kenzo Takada. What if people paid more attention to the setting than the clothes?As it turns out, Ellery's elongated, architectural silhouettes punctuated the space like dynamic exclamation points, and the addition of a wall covered in gypsophila for the presentation backdrop positioned much-maligned baby's breath in a whole new light. The Australian designer name-checked Egon Schiele for this Fall collection, saying that it materialized from visualizing the clothes that might have made up the wardrobe of his famous nudes. Designers often cite artists as inspiration, but this came across as an inspired conceit. You could easily picture those early-20th-century women accepting these generous yet progressively feminine shapes minimally adorned with ceramic disks handmade by Ellery's mother. The designer's ongoing pursuit of specialty fabrics—such as wool flecked with sequins, and laser-cut coppery Lurex stitched into fringed rows on silk georgette, both from Jakob Schlaepfer in Switzerland—translated into a certain vintage-future timelessness, which she acknowledged. "Generally, I think I have a nostalgic sensibility," she said. "I wanted to give [Schiele's models] something that would help them step into our era."That Ellery has yet to exhaust the enlarged pants, by now a signature, suggested an eye for micro detail: The smallest alteration modified a belled bottom into a fresher funnel. She claimed they originated from a point of comfort, but they also happened to overshadow anything in their midst.
8 March 2015
David Bowie is a perennial muse for designers. But Sydney's Kym Ellery made smart use of the reference this season, interpolating the looks of the star's Thin White Duke and Ziggy Stardust era into an appealing collection focused on attenuated proportions, tailoring, and luxe metallic fabrics. At first, naturally, it was the metallic that jumped out at you—the bronze-toned tinsel that Ellery used in pieces such as a cropped jacket and elongated funnel-neck top, the seriously glam lace-patterned gold brocade that turned up, among other places, in her signature super-flares. A silver coat in a Tyvek-like material was almost blinding, it was so bright. Ultimately, though, it was the tailoring that stuck with you, notably the slouchy suit in a gray micro-check, and duster-length coats and gilets finished with glazed stoneware buttons made by the designer's artist mother. The natty shirting was a highlight, as well. Overall, the collection was marked by its restraint: There was no shortage of flourishes here, but they were applied with a light touch.
21 January 2015
Hurrah! After a few seasons showing in Paris in which Kym Ellery's collections have seemed overburdened by their ambitions, the Sydney-based designer got down to business today. This was a pared-down and relatively straightforward outing full of terrific clothes. Ellery had two main emphases: creating a lean, attenuated silhouette, and elaborating it with rich textures. The opening look established the theme: a pair of extra-long tweed trousers topped with a mesh undershirt and matching tweed singlet. The singlet had a buoyant flare, but this was a more measured take on the sculptural volumes Ellery has explored in the past. The tailoring was a highlight—lots of great pants—and the shirting, too, done in heavy-duty cottons with a touch of sheen. Ellery also scored with her long, almost monastic tank dresses, which kicked out under the hip. Those looks were exceedingly matter-of-fact, but they really worked.When Ellery strayed into more experimental territory, the results were more mixed. A sheer fringed fabric was a bit of a head-scratcher, though it could have editorial appeal, and the voluminous strapless dresses in wool suiting fabric didn't really need the blazer pocket at the back to get the point across—that piece had a rigorous elegance, minus the decon wink.One of the interesting things about Ellery is that she's a designer trying to rethink formal clothes—and nowhere was that more obvious than in her trouser-based looks for evening, where the pants were paired with cloudy tops of sculpted organza. The shapes could have been a touch more restrained, but the concept was solid. A bit more discipline, and a little more straightforwardness in the styling, and this show could have been a home run.
27 September 2014
Like a lot of designers who got deep into the major volume trend, Kym Ellery has a challenge before her, in terms of bringing her silhouettes back down to earth. This latest offering from the Sydney-based designer suggests she'll manage that fine: These looks weren't entirely deflated, in terms of their scale, but even the most expansive shapes here connected to the body. Case in point: Ellery's fantastic, spaghetti-strapped sundresses, with graphic print and billowing movement inspired by reflection on suburban swimming pools (and study of the work of David Hockney). Elsewhere, Ellery deployed her signature bell shapes with restraint, making a trumpet hem on cropped pants, or fanning out the sleeve of a slinky bouclé dress or cotton poplin shirt. The shirting was a real highlight here, notably the sleeveless numbers in contrasting colors of broadcloth or white-coated lace. And Ellery also did well with her evening looks, in particular a really soigné strapless gown in black that turned out to be made from Lycra bonded to foam. Another black dress that looked great—a spaghetti-strap, bias-cut number with a deep V—turned out to be made from a satin so heavy it negated the piece's insouciant appeal. It also ran counter to the buoyancy of the really lovely sundresses, a collection highlight alongside the shirts. They were poetic and realistic at once, those dresses, which is a tone Ellery should keep aiming for as she looks ahead to next season.
15 June 2014
As a general matter, ambition in a designer is a good thing. It's good to want to elevate the tone of collections, and to create strong, memorable looks. But ambition is a bit like a horse—you've got to break it, make it docile and willing to proceed at a trot when called for. Otherwise it'll keep getting away from you. Australian Kym Ellery is about midway through the process of "breaking" her ambition. Her latest Ellery collection was more attuned to nuance than her last few, with more of a sense of measure in the silhouettes, and a handful of pieces that showed their refinement in subtle ways. A bustier top debossed in paisley, for instance, or a pair of lean black trousers fronted in green or blue were elegant in their reticence. Meanwhile, more "special" pieces, like another bustier that featured draped sun-ray-pleated silk, had quiet force—it was rightly styled to stand alone.But this collection was still troubled by Ellery's instinct to go big and sculptural with her shapes, and to clutter them together. A voluminous organza skirt in varied paisley prints, for example, was really strong on its own, whereas a bustle-hipped leather jacket with an oversize collar gilded the lily, volume and proportion-wise. There were lots of instances like this: The V-neck dress in green and black, with soft pleats and bell sleeves,good; another, similar V-neck dress in white, with larger bell sleeves and an embellishment of sun-ray pleats,too much.Many aspects of this collection were very appealing, with nice variation in texture and a few great individual pieces you could imagine restyled in very soigné ways. It's not that Kym Ellery needs to check her ambitions; she just needs to make them behave.
2 March 2014
For Ellery's first-ever Pre-Fall collection, Sydney-based designer Kym Ellery decided to focus on luxe. There were serious fabrics here—brocade, velvet, duchesse satin—and high-drama silhouettes, like the voluminous organza dress or the inventive bustier with fabric folded all across the front. Though the shapes were hardly traditional, the very dressiness of this collection made it feel a touch staid. Even the ladies who lunch like some ease in their clothes these days. Not that there weren't individual pieces that expressed just that—the cropped brocade pants with a little kick out at the hem, for instance, or the motorcycle jacket in wine-red ponyskin, an aspirational lust object, indeed. But the standouts here had to be the simple sheath dresses with the trumpet sleeves: No trouble to toss on, and the effect was incontrovertibly soigné.
14 January 2014
This season, Sydney-based Ellery staged its first-ever fashion show outside of Australia. Designer Kym Ellery chose the big stage of Paris for her international debut, and so it was entirely understandable that her new collection emphasized sculptural looks, ones that expressed the effort of their creation. You sensed an attempt to rise to the occasion. The designer should give herself a break. This collection was at its strongest when the clothes conveyed a sense of ease—to wit, in the black midcalf dress with a slit down the neckline and a skirt of fluid pleats. There was also a nice touch in the metallic mesh aprons Ellery used as layering pieces; a simple thing, but it really elevated the designs. The most directional pieces here were the woven bustier tops that the she created out of bricklayers' line and abseiling cord, working with artist Ben Barretto. The garments were great aesthetically speaking, but they were too stiff to have any practical use. It would have been nice had Ellery found a way to translate that idea into textile development, for which she has a knack, and made some really wearable looks. Elsewhere, the focus was on dressy clothes with ballooning volumes, some of them quite beautiful, and new adaptations of signature silhouettes such as the bell-bottom (now with bigger bells!) and short shorts with hanging pockets. It all served as a good introduction to the Ellery aesthetic, for those who hadn't known much about the brand before. Now that the intro has been made, here's hoping that Ellery will let herself, and her clothes, relax a bit.
10 October 2013
The commercial imperatives of Resort can bring out the best in a designer. Australia's Kym Ellery is a case in point: This season, she demonstrated a talent for simplicity, emphasizing silhouettes that were strong without being overbearing. One of Ellery's new tunics, for instance, featured sculptural volume and seam detailing, but you had to attend to the garment a bit in order to understand what made it compelling. It didn't muscle for your attention. The same was true of the collection's striped linen jacket, understated despite its capelike flourish in back, and the monkish, wide-wale pajama pants, which looked especially fresh. This outing wasn't all about reduction, however: The designer made adroit use of embellishment, adding a spray of resin flowers to a few looks, and she followed up last season's excellent dark floral print with another in the same vein, a collage of patterns taken from her mother's wedding china. Still, the strongest pieces in this collection were the simplest—and a few of those items, like Ellery's bell-shaped skirt in cream-toned bonded crepe, had the force of real classics.
12 June 2013
Australian designer Kym Ellery's first claim to fame was her terrific wide-leg pants. This season, she brought them back, which is a cause for celebration—not least because the world seems a little more ready for that silhouette than it was when Ellery debuted them. Anyway, trousers aside, there were a lot of new developments here to get excited about as well. Riffing on the theme of bandits, and the Vincent Gallo filmBuffalo 66,Ellery turned out her most multidimensional collection yet, incorporating a new sense of fluidity and atypical elements, such as lace and floral print, into her architectural aesthetic. The fluidity was to be found in the collection's draping, and in structured yet evanescent skirts of white or pale blue organza. Ellery made her lace durable by coating it with rubber and bonding it; the material that resulted seemed to sum up this brand's particular fusion of sweetness and toughness. But the best new element was the print, a magnified floral taken from a Dutch Old Master still life. It was the least frothy floral imaginable, and it really refreshed pieces such as Ellery's tulip-skirt cocktail dress. The print also reverberated nicely with the collection's textural materials, the croc-embossed calf leather and raw-edged tweed, and with the crisp, almost monastic white shirting. Most of all, though, along with the handful of fluid shapes and the rubberized lace, the floral lent the collection a touch of tenderness, maybe even vulnerability. Maybe there's something about watchingBuffalo 66a bunch of times that makes you realize there's nothing particularly interesting about being invincible.
18 March 2013
Kym Ellery is one of down under's rising fashion stars. A former editor atRusshmagazine, Ellery launched her line three years ago and brings to it both a willingness to experiment and a desire to have fun. Her collections are, without exception, full of incredibly appealing pieces. In the short lifespan of her brand, Ellery has also managed to conjure up one true hit—a pair of fitted, super-flare pants that reign as the defining Ellery silhouette.This season, Ellery found herself inspired by a trip to California and the experience of watching pickup basketball games on the Venice boardwalk. She was loose with the reference: There was some basketball orange in the palette and cool netted fabrics that yielded some of the collection's fresher looks, as well as prints and pebbled textures suggestive of gravelly asphalt courts. In general, though, Ellery put the b-ball theme to use in service of her trademark futuristic chic. She's not an aggressive futurist, but there's something about the way she incorporates sculptural elements into her rather elegant clothes that makes you think she's got a liking for sci-fi. This season, for instance, her reversible copper ponte minidress with bell-shaped sleeves looked like the kind of thing a latter-day Anna Karina might wear in a remake ofAlphaville. And the collection's standout look, a dress in a pale gray marl, came off as what that same Karina manqué would wear to a party. Ellery also deployed the marl material in a dressy suit that featured a new trouser silhouette, this one fitted and slit up the side. Although they didn't take the place of the Ellery flare—which even the designer admitted she had found herself missing—the pants were sharply cut winners.There was something missing here, though it took some thinking to figure out what. For a designer with a very intuitive grasp of the easygoing, Kym Ellery makes vanishingly few clothes that could be called casual. The range of sheer jerseys she's introduced help to build that element into the brand, but it seems a folly for Ellery not to expand into T-shirts, denim, and the like. In time, perhaps.
11 October 2012