Emilia Wickstead (Q3025)
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Emilia Wickstead is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Emilia Wickstead |
Emilia Wickstead is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
For her pre-fall collection, Emilia Wickstead returned to two of her most beloved references: classic cinema and Italy. “It’s been a while since I’ve taken a journey to Italy with one of my collections, so it felt like the right time to return,” she said. Yet while Wickstead’s Italophile instincts have typically been associated with a certain brand of sunkissed, la dolce vita glamour—consider her collaborations with glitzy jet-set hotels Le Sirenuse in Positano or Passalacqua in Lake Como—this time, she decided to dive deeper into one of her favorite films, Roberto Rossellini’s 1954 melancholic neorealist masterpiece Journey to Italy.More specifically, Wickstead was inspired by its characters’ wardrobes—and not just Ingrid Bergman’s sumptuous coats and silk scarves and boat-neck black dresses, either. (Although you will find a supremely elegant 2024-worthy update on the latter in look 44, here cut from a luxuriously hefty black lace.) Instead, she was equally drawn to the classically masculine tailoring worn by George Sanders, even lifting a blown-up version of a gingham check he wears for an especially lovely pair of dresses, one with a button-down collar and another with a crisp scoop neck.There were plenty of splashes of all-out glamour in the mix, too, most notably a gold-foiled lace gown that paid homage to the film’s setting of Naples and its gilded Baroque churches. A series of pink-on-pink and blue-on-blue floral prints, meanwhile, were inspired by Italian tapestries and the luscious fabrics you might find wallpapering the homes of southern Italian nobility. Elsewhere, a set of caped evening gowns were playfully styled with the swags of fabric thrown over the shoulder or even worn with the cape alone and a matching skirt for a touch of something more risqué.The most exciting part for Wickstead? The way the collection afforded her the feeling of having stepped into the director’s chair herself, working closely with the equally cinematically-minded photographer Pavel Kharatian on the images to pay homage to a film she so admires. “We had the models do these very elegant, curled poses that were inspired by Ingrid in the film,” she says, with a wide smile. “But then we also had to toughen it up a bit to make it feel right for our modern-day woman.”
2 December 2024
It’s become a tradition for Emilia Wickstead to cast friends for her pre-fall and resort look books—and this season, she also invited along their dogs. (For some of her previous outings, Wickstead has also included their infants and toddlers; clearly that old saying about never working with children and animals isn’t a concern.) Writer Plum Sykes can be seen in a sleek, claret red one-piece cradling her beloved Twiglet; director Janicza Bravo poses in an emerald green knit holding up the glossy-maned spaniel Ted; and at the end, you’ll even find Wickstead herself in a paisley, pajama-inspired silk suit, proudly clutching her recently acquired pup Margot.“If I said to you, ‘I’m shooting women with their dogs,’ it probably doesn’t sound like the most tasteful way to campaign my clothing and collection,” said Wickstead, laughing. “But I enjoyed that there was a bit of an ironic twist to it.” (And if you needed further confirmation 2024 was the year of theDogue, well, here you have it.)It wasn’t just the cheering presence of those four-legged friends, however, that lent Wickstead’s resort collection its charm. For inspiration, she turned to the work of Karen Knorr, whose trio of photography books published throughout the 1980s take a sideways look at the aesthetic signifiers of the British class system, capturing both the fusty upper crust in their St. James gentlemen’s clubs and the more bohemian milieu found in pockets of West London. Wickstead’s spin on this theme saw her take many of the classically British motifs she’s known for—ditzy florals, Prince of Wales checks, chunky knits—and lend them a more playful, whimsical twist. “There’s a sense of nostalgia there in the textiles and the prints, but then I wanted to translate that into very modern shapes and silhouettes,” she said.Many of the otherwise more restrained looks—a pretty column dress in baby blue worn by philanthropist Noëlla Coursaris, say, or Sykes’s green sleeveless number—came trimmed with delicate crystals and pearls that added a little sparkle. An especially rich, tactile detail was the 3D abstract florals punched into double satin, creating an offbeat effect Wickstead likened to the crinkling of a dress’s fabric when you pull it out of a box. Those hints of razzle-dazzle also served as a nod to the 1980s and Wickstead’s memories of her mother’s wardrobe during that period.
With the collection’s touches of full-throttle ’80s glamour mixed with tweedy English eccentricity, it was hard not to be reminded of the recent release ofRivals, the splashy Hulu adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s racy novel from the same period set among the well-to-do who inhabit the fictional county of Rutshire. “Obviously I didn’t watch it before I designed this collection, but it does feel fitting, in a way,” Wickstead added. “I’m in the middle of it right now, and I’m slightly obsessed.” If there were a real-life Rutshire set shopping for glamorous gowns next summer, one imagines the feeling would be mutual.
8 November 2024
Last season, Emilia Wickstead opened a portal to her darker and more dangerous side, offering a looser, androgynous take on her signatures shown in an industrial basement. It was an impressive flexing of her muscles as a designer, and a showcase for her ability to lean more outré. But this time around, rather than simply double down on those experiments or pivot back to something more buttoned up, Wickstead wove the two threads together, reiterating the precise lines and sleek, elegant femininity you might usually associate with her, while also exploring her more provocative, tomboyish side with subtlety. It was “about following my nose and seeing where that takes me,” she said at a preview.As is often the case, Wickstead’s starting point was a specific muse: here, Gisèle Freund, the German photographer who spent decades in Paris capturing the intellectual glitterati who either lived in or passed through the city—Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Frida Kahlo—with a particular interest in how they worked, whether expressed through their studios, homes, or clothing. Freund was also a pioneer in the world of photojournalism, bringing modern color-photography technology to South America for the first time in the late 1930s. Hence the setting for Wickstead’s show, the hallowed halls of the Royal Geographical Society, where models wove their way around enormous explorers’ globes. “Gisèle used to say that when she would take a photograph, she could feel their souls,” Wickstead mentioned. “She had this profound relationship with her subjects, and so in this collection, I’ve tried to do the same.”One particular subject—and image—that remained front of mind for Wickstead while designing the collection was a photograph of de Beauvoir, reclining on her sofa surrounded by papers, in a peach silk shirt with a tie and matching skirt in what appears to be denim. It was this contrast that gave the designer her starting point, with riffs on the classic men’s tie that were looped under and back into the waistband, expanded into gowns with a single sheet of fabric across the chest and then tucked into an asymmetric waistline and a skirt with diagonal pleats swishing underneath.Slowly, bolder splashes of color—baby blue, sugary pastel pink, blazing green—began to creep in, as did a series of rhythmic block prints that gently nodded to mid-century Argentine design and gorgeous floral prints with a painterly bleed applied.
There were gloves and headpieces by Laura Cathcart covered with glittering floral embellishments; boyish knit polo tops with contrasting black fringing on the collar; some seriously smart tailoring; and a new summer-ready riff on Wickstead’s Grenson loafers with their oversized tassels from last season, here reinterpreted as a sandal. It was eclectic but apt for the rich tapestry of characters you see while scrolling through Freund’s photos. “All of a sudden, I felt like I had created this little bit of a girl gang,” Wickstead said of putting the collection together. “I really honed in on the contrast between the public personas of the women that she photographed versus who they were at home.”As always, there was a different kind of girl gang Wickstead was thinking about too: the coterie of creative women who surround her and serve as her most loyal clients, many of whom have appeared in her look books over the years. Spending time with Wickstead herself, it’s not hard to see why so many powerful women have been charmed by her and brought closer into her orbit—she’s a natural conversationalist with the personality trait all the best designers have: a boundless curiosity. In turn, it could be why she relates to an explorer like Freund, who found her greatest inspiration in other people, then used her lens to go deeper under the skin of her subjects. It’s always a lot of fun to spend time in Wickstead’s world, but don’t underestimate the intellectual rigor of her approach to design. “What I loved most about Gisèle was that she believed photography was suited to a female mentality,” said Wickstead. “She believed that women were excellent observers, which made them better photographers.” It’s that very same point of view that helps lend Wickstead’s work its magic.
15 September 2024
For Emilia Wickstead, designing a collection always starts with the woman; the muse. And for pre-fall, her roving eye turned to Bridget Riley, the British Op art pioneer known for her dazzling canvases lavished with intricate geometric patterns. The point of inspiration was woven through the collection first in a very literal sense—a standout dress was cut from a black-and-white chevron weave that had a hallucinatory shimmer, and featured wiggly seams across the bust that recalled a kind of oversized ric rac; while a butter yellow strapless silk dress had been subtly imprinted with triangular patterns that were amplified by the precise pleats across the bodice. “It’s a tribute to Bridget Riley, but done in a modern way,” Wickstead noted.In keeping with that spirit, the designer took her cues not just from Riley’s artworks, but also the artist’s laid-back personal style. Photographs of Riley herself, in her ever-rotating uniform of suiting, sweaters, and cardigans were nestled between her paintings and shots of flowers by Irving Penn sat next to each other on Wickstead's moodboard this season. (Especially charming were the denim pieces, which were also woven through with a subtle chevron pattern and nodded to artists’ workwear.) “She really embodied this sense of creativity and strength and purpose in the way she dressed,” Wickstead added. To bring that spirit of strength and creativity to life, Wickstead worked with the actor Michelle Dockery—the pair first met after the former designed the latter’s wedding dress last year—to create a lookbook that was deliberately pared back to let Dockery’s presence shine. “To me, Michelle is an artist in her own right—she’s best known for being an actress, of course, but she’s also trained as a dancer,” Wickstead added. “She’s a true performer.”For all of the clever nods to Riley’s role within the pantheon of British art history, there were still plenty of the pieces Wickstead is best known for within the collection: vibrant gowns decorated with eye-catching florals, most notably a delightful, painterly dahlia print that ran the gamut from delicate pastel hues to zesty shades of yellow and green. With the bottom falling out of the e-commerce market, it’s a tough time for many London brands right now—but as a designer who launched her brand in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Wickstead knows how to steer her ship with a steady hand.
And her ability to move the needle forward just the right amount each season is as brilliant as any of her floral prints.
22 May 2024
Emilia Wickstead is something of a photography geek, and her previous collections have taken their cues from the likes of Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Erwin Blumenfeld, and Lee Miller. This season, however, she turned her roving lens—so to speak—toward Garry Winogrand, whose arresting photographs of daily life in New York serve as a striking, extraordinary document of the city’s ever-evolving social tapestry throughout the second half of the 20th century. “He captured the style of the ’60s and ’70s beautifully, but also women from every age group, the thrill and the vibrancy of the nightlife, the ache of heartbreak,” Wickstead said at a preview. “It feels like a bygone era, but there’s also something about it that feels like a precursor to reality TV.” (In that sense, it also served as a natural follow-up to herrecent resort look book, which featured the women of today’s New York wearing her clothes on sidewalks and brownstone stoops.)If there’s one thing Wickstead is known for, however, it’s her magpie’s eye for color and print—and so her collection took Winogrand’s largely black-and-white images and blasted them out in rich, jewel-toned Kodachrome, like Judy Garland stepping into Oz. (Also percolating in the designer’s mind was the work of the German American photographer Evelyn Hofer, with many of Wickstead’s bold color combinations originating in her images.) Perhaps not coincidentally, given the collection’s cinematic air, the show was staged in the subterranean bowels of the Covent Garden building that once housed the London Film Museum—which served as an unusually shadowy and industrial setting for Wickstead. But what followed was a brilliantly unbuttoned, sensual collection, with a darker and very delicious glamour that felt like a new pivot for the designer.It began with a trio of Wickstead standards—a two-piece suit, a full-skirted square-neckline dress, and a ravishing jacquard silk coat—before quickly veering into unexpected territory. A gorgeous butterscotch yellow strapless dress was cut from a silk moiré, then topped with a loose layer of sheer organza that lent it a tactile, off-kilter appeal; workwear-inspired heavy denim pieces were cut as boxy jackets and rippling skirts, then paired with knee-high stockings for a playful blend of masculine and feminine.
This season, Wickstead worked with the stylist Harry Lambert for the first time—whose work with Harry Styles and Emma Corrin, most famously, takes a somewhat iconoclastic approach to gender—and it was interesting to see the alchemy between the two, given they might make for something of an unexpected pairing on paper. From a distance, Look 10—a fluffy mohair cable-knit cardigan, a white button-down, loose pleated trousers, and a pair of tasseled loafers—appeared to suggest Wickstead had branched out into menswear for the first time. But those trousers were cut from the same jacquard as the coat seen earlier, textured with a ditzy floral for a softer, sweeter touch.
18 February 2024
Back in 2020, Emilia Wickstead decided to introduce a little narrative flair to her pre-fall lookbooks by shooting the clothes on the community of creative women that surrounded her. (Initially, she was inspired by the portraits in the 1999 bookUs and Themby Alice Springs, also known as the wife of Helmut Newton.) It’s an approach that evolved into a trilogy of lookbooks over the past three years, and became a clever showcase for how Wickstead’s customers wear her designs: from day to night, from the office to the school run, and always rooted in real life. “It felt like my own study of modern womanhood,” she says.Where last year’s lookbook spotlighted the women in London she’s been following, her latest collection opens a new chapter—this time, by looking to Manhattan, where Wickstead interned in her student years with Proenza Schouler and Narciso Rodriguez. “I had an incredible year in New York, and I always dreamed I’d return there,” she says. Yet while Wickstead might have a sentimental reason for gravitating towards Gotham, there’s a more pragmatic explanation too: The United States is currently her biggest-growing market, and she has a new group of stockists on that side of the pond from this season onwards. “It felt like a very natural progression to head to New York,” she says. “And hopefully a statement that feels humble: I wanted it to be a love letter to the city.”The cast of characters she assembled for the shoot—captured across three days this summer, zipping from the Upper East Side to the Staten Island Ferry—may be a love letter to the city, but it’s also a case study in the evolving appeal of her brand. There are the high society women you might expect to see in Wickstead’s milieu, but also the next generation of tastemakers in film, fashion, and contemporary art, photographed on the stoops of their Brooklyn brownstones or shuffling across sidewalks. As she was still working on the collection while doing the casting, the finishing touches were made with those women in mind. “I loved that every time we were dressing somebody and selecting options, they became part of the story,” says Wickstead.It makes sense, then, that beyond the catnip for her loyal customers—blowsy floral prints, tweed and bouclé skirt suits, Klimt-inspired gold metallic jacquards—the more pared-back and playfully styled moments shone brightest.
Vogue’s Naomi Elizée in a strapless hourglass dress covered in fluoro-green roses and peonies, for example, laid over a chunky ribbed knit, artfully unbuttoned to make for a louche open neckline. Stylist Melissa Levy in a chunky fisherman’s knit sweater and a ’90s-inspired tube skirt, gussied up with shiny, hand-sewn beaded embellishments.The Cut’s fashion director Jessica Willis in a Prince of Wales check bustier and skirt with a matching printed coat. It was a masterclass in how to translate Wickstead’s very British sensibility into something bold and quintessentially New York.There’s been a growing (and long overdue) conversation over the past few months around the disproportionate number of men designing womenswear at the upper echelons of the industry. Wickstead’s clothes are a subtle but steadfast example of why clothes made by women, for women have a unique magic—hence why an army of New York’s most stylish dressers jumped aboard the Emilia Wickstead train for this lookbook. But the real reason is just that Wickstead’s thoughtful, flattering designs make them look and feel really good. What more could you ask for than that?
1 November 2023
The long days of summer may have finally drawn to a close, but Emilia Wickstead still had the sun-soaked hedonism of a European vacation in mind. More specifically, she found herself looking to the French Riviera in the 1920s and ’30s, when the region became an artist’s playground and a locus for forward-thinking style, as the free-spirited creative women of that era—from Françoise Gilot to Lee Miller—began to borrow from the boys. “It felt like the first generation of women who were in charge of their own destiny,” said Wickstead, who was inspired by them to experiment with more masculine shirting and tailoring elements this season. “I wanted to capture the energy of those artists and channel it into something that felt fresh and exciting.”The grand foyer of London’s Royal Academy of Arts served as a suitably elegant backdrop for a collection that saw Wickstead lean into her bolder instincts. “Actually, this season I looked predominantly at the color palettes before I turned to any other form of inspiration,” she said—and with the dazzling kaleidoscope that followed, you could tell. Most striking was a series of looks cut from embossed silks, an exuberant column gown made from tiered loops of fabric in a punchy shade of tangerine, and the slinky knit sailor suits and dresses in zingy shades of lemon and lime. “I wanted the colors to feel loud and flirtatious,” she said.Especially flirtatious were the dresses made from shimmering bugle beads, emanating a satisfying rustle as they glided down the runway, as well as a series of thigh-skimming looks lavished with a more painterly riff on Wickstead’s signature chintzy florals, their dynamic brushstrokes reflecting the collection’s overall spirit of laid-back, deshabille glamour. But most impressive was Wickstead’s ability to seamlessly weave some more day-to-day pieces in among the showstopping eveningwear that is her signature, whether a crisp, boxy linen shirt-and-shorts set that you could easily imagine being worn from the seaside to the studio, or an open-neck denim tunic that nodded to her muses this season and their “sartorial prowess that paved the way for modern womenswear,” as Wickstead put it.“I’ve really been thinking about an artist’s wardrobe,” she continued. “I’m a creative woman, and although I want to create a dream, I also create a modern wardrobe for a working woman as much as I do for a free thinker.
” Wickstead may have allowed herself the room to indulge in a few flights of fancy, but as always the clothes were rooted in a deep practicality too—and you can be sure her loyal followers lining the front row were already beginning to mentally draw up their wish lists as the models took their final walk to a rousing soundtrack of cinematic strings. Next summer can’t come soon enough.
18 September 2023
Emilia Wickstead’s success story began with her assured balance of elegance and wearability. Those crinkle-free cloqué dresses and body-molding bouclés are surprisingly practical, actually, and brides queue up to buy her wedding gowns as much for their restrained sense of luxury as for their sheer comfort. So what’s set to define the next chapter? Wickstead’s shrewd knack for world-building. AsVogue’s Sarah Harris noted in her review of Wickstead’s fall 2023 collection, over the past few years, the designer has slowly but steadily begun developing a constellation of projects that go beyond the modern formalwear that first made her name, venturing into realms as varied as sleepwear, shoes, and, as of last December, her own homewares line.So while it’s not the first time Wickstead has explored the world of swimwear—her collaboration with Emporio Sirenuse, the fashion brand belonging to the Positano grande dame hotel Le Sirenuse, marked her splashy first entry into that space—to see it placed firmly at the front isn’t as strange as it might initially sound. Shooting on the beaches of Puglia, the heel in Italy’s boot that is a firm favorite for British holidaymakers, Wickstead channeled her passion for historical photography via images that referenced the ease of pioneering fashion photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe and the fresh-faced beauty of Peter Lindbergh. “They each cultivated their own unique style of elevated naturalism and freedom,” Wickstead said of her twin inspirations.So, then, to the clothes, which made good on Wickstead’s promise of something resort-ready. “This is definitely the most ‘high summer’ collection we’ve ever done,” she said of her pre-fall offering, which featured her popular bralette and trouser sets alongside more unexpected separates, including slinky polos and turtlenecks paired with floral bikini bottoms. Models poseddéshabilléagainst azure blue backdrops, crisp white cotton dresses peeling off them like modern Venuses on the half-shell, while the fabrics nodded to the collection’s beachy spirit. (An especially clever touch can be seen in pieces cut from a cream bouclé that, from a distance, looked a little like flannel; that the models are styled with them slung over one shoulder only highlights the trompe l’oeil toweling effect.
)Wickstead’s willingness to lean a little wonky with her choices of clashing prints—a deliberately disorderly painted checkerboard paired with an abstracted floral, say—also carried a distinctive charm; an air of “liberated beauty,” in Wickstead’s words. As always, though, this decision served a more useful purpose, too. As many of the prints have cropped up in previous collections, it allows her loyal clientele to mix and match their Wickstead capsule wardrobes from across the seasons. “I think that’s a clever way of creating newness for our customer without being wasteful,” she said. Her world may be expanding, but Wickstead is still in the driver’s seat.
24 May 2023
Emilia Wickstead and… grunge. There’s a sentence you wouldn’t have expected. Okay, it might be a neater version of grunge (you won’t find bleached ripped denim and frayed check shirts here), but you will see blown-up plaid intarsia sweaters, crinkled satins, and throw-on curb-grazing bell bottoms, of which, Wickstead said, “I really see them as the must have trouser shape of the season.”After recently discovering David Lynch’s hit ’90s drama series,Twin Peaks, Wickstead was hooked. “I became transfixed by the characters and their wardrobe,” she said. “It’s really an homage to that wonderful cast, like Josie Packard, phenomenally chic and elegant in louche, relaxed tailoring; schoolgirl Audrey Horne, who wears fitted sweaters and plaid miniskirts but who also has this 1950s seductive element to her, with her satin lingerie-esque evening wear, and even Agent Cooper too, with those masculine overcoats he wore. I was thinking about this very modern young teenage muse, which felt quite different for us.”Wickstead often explores the tension between the familiar and surreal, last season it was Man Ray and before that Hitchcock. “I think as a brand we’re very buttoned-up and we’re very into our tailoring and simplicity with a twist, which is why I love working with these inspirations because there is something a little bit strange about them; that’s the quirkiness.”Her color combinations were also fittingly off-kilter, not least within her full-skirted floral prints: turquoise and brown and pistachio collided in one, while another comprised gray leaves with blood red roses. Tweedy two-pieces came in surprising hits of acid green and candyfloss pink. But she was also mesmerized by the possibilities of black, partly, inspired by David Lynch’s quote:‘The more you throw black into a color, the more dreamy it gets.’Staged at the Royal Academy of Arts, this season also marked her return to the runway. Since the pandemic, she has favored a film-format for her presentations. Only a few weeks ago she still wasn’t sure if she would stage a show or stick to a video concept. “Basically, my gut didn’t tell me not to do a show and so that’s why we did one, but it’s small and intimate, which felt right this season.”Her instinct paid off.
In other Wickstead news, she launched a bridal collection last month, which is already proving to be a success, and on the back of her homeware launch at the end of last year, she’s following it up with a lineup of upholstery; something her clients have been asking for. “It feels like a natural extension,” she says. “It’s a fun way to have a piece of our world.”
20 February 2023
Given the ballet studio setting of Emilia Wickstead’s latest lookbook, the first question that arises is whether Wickstead is a dancer herself. “I did jazz and ballet as a kid, but I only ever won an award for the most improved dancer,” she said laughing. “So it’s not to do with any particular pastime of mine.” Instead, Wickstead’s love affair with ballet stems from her fascination with Annie Leibovitz’s 1983 bookDancers, which features striking portraits of stars including Mikhail Baryshnikov and Darci Kistler both training in their studios and stepping onto the stage. “What I loved about it were these rehearsal images mixed with portraiture mixed with the big grand productions,” said Wickstead. “I loved the purity, and how raw it was.”So what did Wickstead do? Call up a handful of London’s most prestigious ballet companies, and invite some of their most accomplished soloists to model the collection within the surroundings of the English National Ballet’s Centre for Dance. Not only do the extraordinary contortions of the dancers’ bodies show off Wickstead’s signature swishy full skirts and crisp, elegant knits with grace and flair, but they also continue a tradition of Wickstead looking to real communities of women to model her pre-collections. “I think it adds another angle to the clothing,” she said. “I always try to find our woman in different places, and dress her for different environments.”While there are some new, dance-ready riffs within the collection—masculine, oversized shirting to slip on after ballet class, say, or artfully cropped cable knits to wear while warming up—it’s only natural that Wickstead’s interpretation of the world of dance would lean more opulent given her background in eveningwear. Still, there was an unusually flamboyant, theatrical spirit (for Wickstead) woven through the collection. A bold print of red roses on a red background was inspired by the flowers thrown onto the stage to the prima ballerina during applause, while a particularly ravishing series of looks were cut from a new fabric Wickstead and her team developed that they’ve nicknamed a “lurex Tweed,” and that carries a delightfully festive, tinsel-like shimmer. Wickstead’s other textile innovations included a palpably luxurious performance fabric used to craft voluminous skirts that are feather-light, yet have the structural integrity almost to stand up on their own.
Another notable detail was Wickstead’s use of pinstripes, which she described as having been influenced by the dance teacher’s hovering in the background of Leibovitz’s images. In Wickstead’s hands the classic suiting pattern feels anything but austere. Lavished across soft wools and crepes—and in a particularly lovely pleated skirt loosely inspired by the shape of a tutu—the pinstripe pieces were as light as a dancer’s pirouette.Indeed, the various chapters of a dancer’s life—the grueling hours of training, the grandeur of the performances, the later-in-life transition to teaching—all dovetailed surprisingly neatly with the full cross-section of Wickstead’s typical product categories, even as she’s made increasingly ambitious forays into tailoring and knitwear. (Her satisfyingly chunky cable knit sweaters have been a particular hit over the past few seasons.) But it’s her romantic eye for eveningwear that shone brightest—and proved once again that Wickstead’s ability to spin a romantic, escapist yarn.
28 November 2022
When Emilia Wickstead began researching ideas on uniforms and the work of visual artist Man Ray, it didn’t take long to join the dots to the spirit and style of Lee Miller, a regular reference point on Wickstead’s mood boards. “She’s the consummate polymath: artist, muse, model, surrealist, journalist,Voguephotographer, and the first female war correspondent,” said Wickstead during a preview of her collection while in the midst of dressing mannequins at her new store on Sloane Street, the venue for this season’s video presentation.As Wickstead explained, this collection touched on the many facets of Miller’s career but at the forefront of it all was her determined independence and freedom to move across those different worlds. At its most obvious, the idea of uniform was evident in oversized shirting with neat boyish collars and utilitarian flap pockets, rendered glamorously in sheerest organza, and beige wide-leg trousers in silk satin, not workaday cotton.Miller’s sensuality and her love affair with Man Ray were explored via off-the-shoulder shapes, a glimpse of underpinnings, and a feeling of unraveling—of fabrics peeling away. One of the most interesting references was how Wickstead approached Miller’s pioneering photography techniques. Miller and Ray discovered solarization, a process that gives photographs a ghostly, glowing, and surreal quality. Wickstead took this as a way to experiment with prints. Her painterly florals on silk were blurred and became further distorted overlaid with printed organza; the effect, she noted, was as softly focused as a Vaseline-smeared lens. Pleats were also warped—either stitched back or falling in rebellious folds rather than rigid, linear formations.This was a collection with all kinds of shapes and silhouettes, from rigorously fitted and immaculately tailored to easy and loose, from ultrashort to long and narrow gowns with trains. Others were full and floor skimming. Overall it was feminine and formal but with a spicy undercurrent of edge and modernity—even a bit racy at times. It’s this clever and precise balance that ensures Wickstead’s clothes don’t veer too far one way or the other.And there was a great new bag too. Wickstead debuted her own luxe version of the plastic carrier bag, crafted in stiff sheer gauze with edges piped in silk satin. It comes in nude, black, and white, and her clients will surely want all three.
“Whatever Miller turned her hand to, she just threw herself into it and did it so brilliantly,” she said. Much like Wickstead, in fact: She presided over the design of her impressive checkerboard-terra-cotta-marbled store, which opened this summer. Her product offering has expanded across multiple categories. Beyond ready-to-wear, bespoke, and bridal, there is sleepwear, shoes, swim, and holidaywear, and she’ll soon launch tabletop, comprising plates, cutlery, crystal glassware, and linens. It’s a world you really want to live in.
20 September 2022
With the lookbook accompanying her latest collection, Emilia Wickstead is closing a chapter, of sorts. Beginning in 2020, the designer has used the pre-fall season as an opportunity to tenderly spotlight the community of creative women that surrounds her in London. But where the previous two seasons featured said women with their children, this time around, Wickstead wanted to ensure the focus was firmly on them. “I’m calling it my trilogy,” says Wickstead. “For the final round, I really wanted to elevate these women and place them center stage, which is why they really fill the frame. I wanted to show how incredible they are on their own.”With the grace and gentility of the bright young things of Cecil Beaton—indeed, the prints featuring blowsy hydrangeas and roses were directly inspired by Beaton’s gardens at Reddish House—Wickstead’s leading ladies have never looked more statuesque. But as always, the designer kept practicality in mind too, with pinstripes that pay homage to “that entrepreneurial spirit of the working woman,” in Wickstead’s words, as well as a series of lightweight denim pieces that embody a sense of laid-back elegance. Even the more formal details, like Wickstead’s shawls, which she usually structures to form origami-like shapes around the body, carried a more effortless sense of glamour, here softened to envelop the body.If there’s one thing Wickstead pays keen attention to, it’s the needs and wants of her clientele, many of whom have returned multiple times to feature in the series of lookbooks. “It’s very exciting, especially with all the big hair and the capes and the glamour,” says Wickstead. “But I think in terms of what they would be wearing. It’s about that glamour, but about a sense of ease too.” And while Wickstead is well-known for the subtle decorum of her crepe dresses—there’s a reason both the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Eugenie were spotted in Wickstead gowns over the course of the Jubilee weekend—she has a confident way with more casual separates too, with her cable knits and flared pants proving to be particularly desirable this season.
9 June 2022
It isn’t too much of a stretch to imagine a 14-year-old Emilia Wickstead in Milan, transfixed by its architecture and its sartorial codes; the immaculately dressed women on the streets, in restaurants. She soaked in the rigor of their tailoring, their no-nonsense take on femininity, their discreet approach to glamour, right down to the way they knotted a cable-knit sweater around their shoulders with such panache! All of these observations, and more, were stored and catalogued in her young mind. “I remember being so transported by it all,” recalled Wickstead, who spent her formative teenage years attending school in Milan. “That time of my life…it keeps coming back to me, it’s very much instilled in me.”So too, is the work of Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni, in particularL’Avventura(1960) andLa Notte(1961), and his leading muse Monica Vitti. “Vitti is such an exuberant, fantastic, fabulous woman who just transfixes in these incredible outfits she wears,” said Wickstead. The designer borrowed several film references for fall, from the ’60s silhouettes and colors to the inverted sweetheart neckline, even the apron front and criss-cross back of a gown were inspired by a nurse’s apron from one scene.There was a sharp focus on tailoring again. “The perfect suit—it’s something we are really diving into as a brand,” said Wickstead. That became apparent last fall, but even more so here where it formed the basis of her opening looks. “It’s become a big part of our storytelling,” she added. Her double-breasted and exaggerated cuts might be masculine in silhouette, but rendered in cosy mohair the effect was super tactile, while those crop tops and bralettes added the right dose of girlishness, especially when they appeared in pops of dusty pink against an otherwise austere palette of chocolate and black. “Those industrial browns and charcoal grays; they feel very Milanese,” said Wickstead. “I find chocolate brown really romantic; it so easily goes from day into evening.” Sublimely dressed head to toe in it—a wool shirt and wide trouser combo—we didn’t need convincing any further.Wickstead is a perfectionist—in the best kind of way—and that goes for everything from hitting upon the exact right shade of lime, to tailoring technicalities, to the pristine line of a dress.
And yes, there was plenty of opulence and decoration here too; from her baroque lace pieces, which were built up with 3D appliqué, to those drop-waisted full-skirted gowns in rich duchesse satin, to that checkerboard motif, which was meticulously hand-painted. Yet, astonishingly, it all came across as pretty effortless. And aren’t those the kind of clothes we all want right now? Wickstead smiled, adding, ”I always believe simplicity is the hardest thing to achieve—and wear right.” She nailed it.
21 February 2022
For Emilia Wickstead, the restrictions imposed by lockdown on runway shows felt less like a limitation, and more like an opportunity. The designer has embarked on a series of increasingly ambitious projects for her lookbooks, whether shooting mothers and children within her creative community, or a joyously kaleidoscopic set of images for her resort collection inspired by ’90s supermodels. “I think confidence goes a long way,” said Wickstead at the west London townhouse she took over for the day to show her new collection, this season through the medium of film. “We’ve had this really interesting period of dressing for our time and what’s going on in the world, so I wanted to make sure that I had that in mind. But of course, it’s getting really exciting now as things are getting back to normal—or the new normal, whatever that might be.”For her final outing before returning to the runway (one hopes, at least) Wickstead decided to pull out the stops. “I don’t know what the future holds, but in my mind, this could very easily be the last time we do one of our presentations like this,” said Wickstead. Inspired by the dream-like enchantment ofLast Year at Marienbad—the cryptic French New Wave masterpiece featuring nameless aristocrats with tangled romantic histories crossing paths at a luxury hotel—as well as Franco Zeffirelli’s opulent 1968 adaptation ofRomeo and Juliet,Wickstead shot her film, directed by Robin Mellor, within the stately and appropriately surreal topiary garden of the Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire. “Last Year in Marienbadreally transported me, and I wanted to transport people with this film,” Wickstead said.Transportive it was. Shot in a hypnotic mix of dramatic wide angles and close-up tracking shots, the models weave their way through the manicured hedges before gathering en masse to walk down the grand central field opening up into the horizon, lined with towering trees. And where some of Wickstead’s lockdown collections have gently dialed things back, this season marked a return to the ravishing, fully-fledged glamour that first made her name internationally as a red carpet favorite. Most striking initially was the rich color palette and the decadent prints, from Wickstead’s signature chintzy florals to more abstract designs, hand-painted in her atelier and decorated with lovebirds, fish, and wreaths.
A number of looks featuring satin shawls dazzled with old-world charm, here paired with little black dresses or ab-baring two pieces for a touch of something more contemporary.Look closer, and Wickstead had a few other playful tricks up her sleeve. A new silhouette featured extended, cummerbund-inspired waistbands running from bust to hip before erupting into full, artfully pleated skirts. Meanwhile, a cream textured jacquard proved particularly versatile, coming in the form of structured separates and dresses featuring swishy A-line skirts. Despite the dreamy extravagance of the gowns, the lessons Wickstead learned during lockdown when it came to practicality and ease were clearly still present, even when used to construct the most fanciful pieces. But the primary thrill was witnessing Wickstead’s keen abilities as a storyteller fully shine. “We need a love story right now and that’s what I wanted to try and create,” said Wickstead. Her dreamy return to romance was a delight to behold.
21 September 2021
From the Hitchcock-inspired, femme fatale glamour of her fall collection to the romantic black-and-white portraits of mothers and children she featured in the pre-fall lookbook she released last month, Emilia Wickstead has spent the past year dialing back some of her more flamboyant instincts to craft more practical pieces that feel responsive to the times. With her new resort collection, however, it seems she’s once again opening a new chapter: one marked by an explosion of kaleidoscopic color featuring bright yellows and greens, rich jewel tones, and silvers. It’s a collection shot through with the vibrancy and joie de vivre that has made Wickstead a go-to for all manner of parties, celebrations, and red carpets.It makes sense, then, that Wickstead’s primary sources of inspiration this time around were the ’90s supermodels. “I was feeling a bit nostalgic,” said Wickstead. “I was thinking about growing up as a young girl in New Zealand in the ’90s, and my mother was a fashion designer and used to haveVoguemagazines air freighted over. There was so much energy in the campaigns and shoots then.” It’s an energy Wickstead captured in the lookbook for her collection, which features just a single model—new face Anna Ross—with the kind of striking looks and palpable sense of personality that radiated from the women who dominated that decade. (Good timing, too, considering Apple TV+ has a documentary series on the supers—co-produced by Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington themselves—that is expected to arrive later this year.)Alongside the more playful, revealing pieces, like a décolletage-baring minidress with sleeves covered in a green-and-white floral print on taffeta faille—a winking nod to the concurrent ’90s grunge movement—or a series of powder pink gowns featuring a red ornamental motif, there were some more grown-up moments too, albeit delivered with the same pizzazz. A skirt suit in a yellow-and-black check channeled the cinched waistlines and demure chic of her fall collection, with more than a touch of Kim Novak inVertigo, while a column dress with a pleated front and a dramatic train was cut from cloqué fabric in a ravishing shade of purple. Ease and practicality may have become new buzzwords for Wickstead, but high drama is still in her vocabulary too.
18 June 2021
For her pre-fall 2020 collection, released in January of last year, Emilia Wickstead opted for a novel method of presenting her opulent draped gowns and razor-sharp tailoring. Inspired by the iconic portraits of motherhood captured in Helmut Newton and his wife, Alice Springs, in their seminal 1999 bookUs and Them, Wickstead worked with photographer Edd Horder to shoot black-and-white portraits of mothers and children in her looks. It felt like both an ode to the strong sense of community she’s cultivated around the brand, as well as a savvy reflection of her customer base, which includes a sizable contingent of creative working women.When it came time to reveal her new pre-fall offering, Wickstead decided to check back in with these women after a tumultuous year. To do so, she moved beyond the blank studio walls of the previous portraits, entering her clients’ homes and gardens to show how they’ve led their lives—and of course, how they got dressed—over the many months of lockdown. “I think there’s a real fascination with how other people have been living over the past year, and going into people’s homes and people’s worlds was an opportunity to do that,” says Wickstead. “It was a wonderful way to continue the story.”Where Wickstead was once synonymous with the sleek lines and dramatic silhouettes of the red carpet, she’s now placing a new emphasis on wearability. Here, this came in the form of skirts cut from an airy cotton-denim, and a particularly lovely pinstripe jumpsuit inspired by the clothes her designer mother would cut for the fashionable women of Auckland back in the ’90s. “I’ve been throwing in a few more ’90s references the past few seasons, actually,” says Wickstead. “But I very much had my mother in mind with this one. I thought it was a nice nod to the theme of the lookbook too.”That’s not to say her taste for flouncy femininity has been done away with altogether; just dialed back to welcome a greater sense of ease. There are a number of separates on offer in Wickstead’s delightfully chintzy florals, while a series of bell skirts with matching crop tops come in ravishing jewel tones, cut from a double-faced cloqué that can be sat on and scrunched without creasing or losing its shape. On the subject of practicality, in something of an experiment for Wickstead, the collection will be available to purchase immediately from her website and a select number of stockists.
Beyond the various ways Wickstead is steering her brand into its post-pandemic future, what charms most is the soulful backstory that underpins the images and the thoughtful way in which Wickstead reinterpreted that into clothes. “Nothing is overly precious, and I think that’s exactly what we’re all looking for right now,” she says. It’s likely her following—those included in her lookbook, and those far beyond—will agree.
29 May 2021
Following a year of lockdown, on and off, it isn’t surprising that Emilia Wickstead had been thinking about women behind closed doors. “How women dress at home and what they’re doing; as a designer I’m imagining that all the time when I’m putting a collection together,” she said during a Zoom preview. “This collection is about a woman’s life, with the audience looking into her world.” If that sounds a bitRear Window,then you’ve hit the nail on the head. Alfred Hitchcock’s mystery thriller was a big source of inspiration, extending, too, to the film Wickstead presented today, which showed a set of corridors and doorframes that allowed stolen glimpses of the protagonists.There is a rigor and pace to the film which suits Wickstead’s designs—strictly tailored and purposeful, no-nonsense. Her new interpretation of eveningwear, such as a pencil-skirted charcoal off-the-shoulder dress or a pleated jumpsuit, was rendered in virgin wool gabardine, the kind of fabric more associated with tailoring. Wickstead said she was mindful about where we are in this time and how we might want to dress when we can eventually go for dinner at a friend’s house. In lieu of formal jackets, there was movement with generous wraps and sweeps of fabric intended to be thrown over a shoulder like a blanket for everyday ease and comfort. “A lot of it is quite casual if you read between the lines,” she said.Certainly, there were no giant bows or other fancies on display. Wickstead approached the collection by looking at women framed by their interior surroundings, not only inRear Window: She also watchedTeorema(1968), by Pier Paolo Pasolini, andI Am Love(2009), by Luca Guadagnino, so color played the part of decoration. Cue opulent gold brocade, purple, olive, and pastel blue. A sparse, allover rose print in lemon or lapis blue on white called to mind a chintzy mid-century tablecloth. Wickstead noted that Hitchcock’s direction to Grace Kelly was that she should look like “a piece of Dresden china, nearly untouchable.” Wickstead’s rose print was anything but fragile in the final look: a cut-out bra top and black full skirt, wholly provocative with a steely toughness. Those clean lines, graphic cut-outs and razor-sharp slits modernized the proceedings, giving the collection a cool but elevated ’90s sensibility.When it comes to all-out glamour, the gold jacquard coatdress would do nicely.
“Someone asked me recently, ‘Do you think everyone will go wild and dress up post pandemic?’ and I think there is a desire to do that for sure; that’s what I’m understanding and believing in, and putting out there,” said Wicksted. “But designing in these times, there has to be a focus on versatility. Yes, there is lots of suiting—you could call it returning to the office, or returning to real life—but there are also lots of luxe jersey pieces for comfort” (including a tapered stirrup trouser and tunic combination, which is about as close as Wickstead will ever get to a tracksuit). “Everything is imbued with a sense of ease,” she said. “And that feels really right for now.”
22 February 2021
No question, a global pandemic can knock a brand sideways, but it can also make a designer sit up and ask herself:What do women need now? What do we want to wear? Who are we dressing for? And, where are we going wearing that?To some extent these are eternal questions. Designers are well versed in looking to the future, but these times are beyond all reasonable calculation. Who knows what world we will be living in when the spring collections land in stores? Anyway, they certainly came up for Emilia Wickstead earlier this year when she started planning this collection as the country—and the world—went into lockdown.Wickstead’s glorious big hitters—I’m thinking of those dramatic silk gowns with huge bow backs and balloon-sleeved floor-sweepers—totaled zero this season. There’s a heady dose of realism here, and for good reason: Because she physically went through every look and asked herself, “Can I dress that up? Can I dress that down?” With red carpet opportunities few and far between, it was a smart move to make a collection of refined, relatively simple pieces that can pivot from an easy lunch, to a dinner for two, to a small soirée at home.Wickstead’s starting point wasFaery Lands of the South Seas, a nonfiction book published in 1921 by travel writers James Norman Hall and Charles Bernard Nordhoff. She noticed it on her daughter Mercedes’s nightstand. It was a gift she received from her godmother the day she was born, and Wickstead realized she had never read it. The tales reference the designer’s homeland and her Samoan/New Zealand roots. “Their descriptions are like fairy tales but it’s an actual documentation of how they saw those places,” she says. An inky, beautifully illustrated sailboat print repeated over cotton poplin full skirts and cropped shirting smacks of nostalgia and goes some way in transporting us there.Wickstead also pored over the work of Lucien Gauthier, a French documentary photographer enamored with Tahiti and the traditional dress of Tahitian women in their crisp, colonial shirting and printed sarongs. Hence then Polynesian fern sparsely placed on tailored maxi skirts and bandeau dresses, which she worked on with New Zealand artist Hannah Jensen who carves her own print blocks out of wood. If that sounds make-and-mend crafty, it wasn’t, because her next layer of research turned it modern.
Once deconstructed, those shirt and skirt combinations led her to explore ’90s minimalism and Peter Lindbergh’s arresting images of that era, which extended to an elegant series of tailored Bermuda shorts and sweet bralettes.
20 September 2020
Backstage shortly before Emilia Wickstead’s show, held at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, the designer was still waiting for five models to appear, Storm Dennis was blowing in, and the traffic between shows—thanks, Dennis—was horrendous. Wickstead, however, was her usual ebullient and enthusiastic self, explaining the inspiration for her fall collection. Specifically, she had been looking at the work of set decorator and art director Cedric Gibbons, a glamorous figure who cut a swath in Hollywood and on Broadway from the ’20s to the ’50s and picked up Academy Awards with the same ease that the rest of us swipe a MetroCard. It was Gibbons’s mix of Art Deco linearity and dramatic draping that Wickstead, an aficionada of old movies, had fallen in love with.Anyone familiar with the Wickstead oeuvre won’t be surprised by this. Her signature look has long been founded on a hyper–old-school femininity, all swooning curves and caressing folds. But then factor in that one of Gibbons’s many Oscars was for art directingGaslight—surely the movie’s subject matter makes it ripe for a remake; I vote for Wickstead to design the costumes—and you realize there’s more going on here than might seem at first glance. To be sure, her collection had the likes of an exquisitely rendered coat in cornflower blue, with a tight waist and swishing with the fullest of skirts, and an equally glam (and good) gilded brocade dress, its voluminous skirting in sharp contrast to its graphic/minimalist neckline sitting off the shoulders.Yet Wickstead also saw an architectural thought in the designs of Gibbons, citing his work on the proto-feminist 1939 productionThe Women, and that struck a chord with her too. Despite all her iterations of a heaving, curvaceous silhouette, she has always had a thing for a graphic and precise sense of construction, and that came into play here as well, what with the strictly belted long jacket in black leather, a material that was all over the New York runways last week, and a black pantsuit whose severity was relieved by the softness of the undulating shirt cuffs that peeked out of the jacket’s sleeves. (If one had to quibble, the one misstep was the use of oval cutouts that framed the torso from just under the breasts and circled down toward the waist; you’d need nerves of steel, let alone abs, to pull those off.
)In the end, for all of her riffing on the past, Wickstead remains firmly looking at the present, presenting her collection on a cast that varied dramatically in age. And it wasn’t just on the runway: In the audience sat both actress, playwright, and director Zawe Ashton and Wickstead’s mother, looking drop-dead chic in a black blazer and pleated skirt from one of her daughter’s previous collections.
16 February 2020
Emilia Wickstead came up with a touching idea for her pre-fall shoot: getting her society of friends together to make this series of mother and baby portraits. The serene photos were inspired byUs and Them, the 1999 book by Helmut Newton and his wife, Alice Springs, in whose pages are black-and-white portraits of Princess Caroline of Monaco, Lucie de la Falaise, Brigitte Nielsen, and Donatella Versace with their babies and toddlers.Wickstead’s study of modern motherhood in 2020 captures Charlotte Dellal, Sabine Getty, Emma Elwick-Bates, Sarah Harris, Kenya Hunt, and more. It’s a tender snapshot of the reality rarely seen: that the women who turn to Wickstead to abet their polished public and social personae are also adoring mothers.“I wanted to show that there are childproof clothes!” Wickstead laughed. “Crease-free, robust, not too delicate, and always with a sense of ease.” Wickstead knows all about putting pragmatic glamour into everyday life; she has two children herself. Her complicity with her circle of customers is built into everything she designs. “I always think about it, but I really thought about it with this collection,” she said.Sorting out a sisterly M.O. is the hidden strength of her brand, beyond its signature stamp of strong pastels, draped dresses, fluted details, fresh offerings of elegant jumpsuits, and versatile pairings of dresses over fluid pants. “I’ve always loved and enjoyed staying true to the idea of dressing up. For me as a designer, I’ve always been inspired by the past—the pictures we see of our mothers and grandmothers, always looking immaculate,” she said. “I think it’s part of my job to show that, even though, yes, we’re on the go, you can do this with clever clothes.”
8 January 2020
When Jo March tells Laurie Laurence she wishes big hats were in fashion so she could protect her face from the sun, he delivers some top-drawer dressing advice. “Why mind the fashion? Wear a big hat, and be comfortable!” That and the “broad-brimmed, old-fashioned leghorn” he subsequently gives her were twoLittle Womeninflections delivered by Stephen Jones in this Emilia Wickstead riff on Louisa May Alcott’s enduring novel. It wasn’t that this was a literal—or at least overly literal—take on 1860s attire but more that in Alcott, and the on-herself-based character of Jo, Wickstead found a kindred spirit. Alcott lived in hidebound times in which propriety was paramount.Wickstead is a very proper designer: Her clothes are for sure made to appear ladylike, perhaps sometimes even tantamount to prim, but what the designer relayed today was that under even the most apparently put-together and fashion-minding exterior can beat the heart of an iconoclast. Electrically toned gingham shirting shapes split south from the collar to reveal the navel without ever going so de trop as to do anything more than bolster the bosom. Caped-hem evening dresses in boiled-candy shades ballooned as if steroid enhanced at the arm. A ruched, puff-shoulder dress with a full skirt that fell in vertical lines of pink and orange was almost sickly but certainly sweet.This collection took conventional, classic lady dressing and pushed it to a beyond that made you question the starting point. The blancmange trio at the finale was perhaps too much, and we have seen these hyper-volumized soft scoop excesses too often elsewhere recently for them to feel fresh. But when Wickstead added a harness to an otherwise horse-trial-appropriate look or raised the hem on her wide-kicked tailored pants to an extreme height, she captured the essence of poor rejected Laurie’s sound advice: Don’t mind the fashion. Because if you don’t mind it, you become it.
15 September 2019
Before there was Instagram, there wasHolidaymagazine. Between 1946 and 1972 this gorgeous American title generated fabulous FOMO with issue after beautiful issue of precisely written and gloriously photographed fantasy travel editorial.The magazine was cannily revived by a French publisher in 2014, and for Resort 2020 Emilia Wickstead just as cannily exhumed its spirit for a collection that could have graced its pages the first time around—and which will look just as enviable on your feed today. Informed in spirit, print, and colorway byHoliday, Wickstead’s Resort itinerary spanned the decades to produce an alluring transseasonal itinerary of destination dressing.The many ready-to-share, ready-to-wear stopovers worth lingering upon included prim, graphically striped skirts, shirtdresses, and dresses played against ski-print crepe shirting; lavishly volumized black Lurex dresses heavily stamped with pleat; and wild python-print PVC pieces that brought the tour throughHoliday’s jetset decades up to date. Christmas florals—jolly holly-spiked twists of bloom—were featured in summer-weight crepes, and those stripes were reduced and lightened on berry-toned voiles ripe for ballooning in a summer breeze. Punchy green or red dresses, full of skirt and arm with sweetheart necklines, came in waffled crepe designed for crease-free packing. The shoes, bags, and hats were all in shapes carried over from Fall to allow the frequent-flier Wickstead traveler to seamlessly update this new route into her wardrobe. This was a collection that cleverly accessed a long-gone world of analogue escapism, all altered to fit the digital today.
7 August 2019
Emilia Wickstead was consumed by the cinematic vision of Francis Ford Coppola’sGodfathertrilogy for Fall 2019. The designer found her mafia muse in the guise of Mary Corleone, the Italian-American mob boss’s daughter, as portrayed by Sofia Coppola inThe Godfather Part III, from 1990. Though Coppola’s performance was widely panned (first choice Winona Ryder had fallen ill), the film’s costuming, by Milena Canonero, was a triumph. The trilogy spans from 1901 to 1980, and it was from this broad sartorial well that the New Zealand designer drew, dressing her sirens for the emotive moments—marriages, deaths, and reunions—to create what she termed, “a wardrobe for life.”“I wanted to draw people into the nostalgia of that world,” said Wickstead of the intimate restaurant setting she chose for her show. “Le Caprice is one of the oldest Italian interiors in London.” The black marble floors and cane-backed chairs haven’t been touched since 1981, when it was a favorite haunt of Lady Di. The clothes were of a similarly high-wattage timbre. Flanked by her own “la famiglia,” Wickstead presented models in cropped-top bouclé wedding gowns, hair slicked back into buns, with coordinating Sicilian crochet gloves and neat little tone-on-tone caps that borrowed from the photographs of Erwin Blumenfeld.Even the more mannish offerings here felt voluptuous: Oversize herringbone check overcoats came with huge, sweeping scarves in black pleather (“I love its lightness,” said Wickstead), and in creamy wool gabardine with cascading pearl embellishments that encased the torso and trailed the floor. Dresses in textured leopard prints andGodfathervintage florals were given plunging backs and necklines that lent a modern sensibility, as did the giant croc bags slung under models’ arms.Many of these sumptuous designs had a couture-like finish—the folded and pleated velvet fabrication of one particularly glorious scarlet gown was so dense it had to be hand-stitched. Yet even the show’s richest confections were designed to be stripped back, layer by layer, to create lighter looks. “Even though you’re entering this fantasy world,” said Wickstead, “it should be wearable.”
18 February 2019
“I’ve worked hard, and I’ve made a fortune, and I did it in a man’s world, but always, ruthlessly, and with a cruel kind of insistence, I have tried to keep feminine.” Emilia Wickstead read this quote from Fleur Cowles as she gestured toward the mood board she put together for Pre-Fall. The pictures she’d pinned up of the flamboyantly chic editor ofFlairin the ’50s (Cowles had cofounded an American advertising agency and sold it, and self-published a magazine of fashion, art, and literary contributions) were interspersed with Cowles’s paintings of roses. Really, you could see how Cowles could resonate as an ideal heroine to this independent designer whose business relies equally on tough day-to-day toil, succinctly updated social dress codes, and, yes, lots of flowers.Wickstead’s lookbook was shot very recently in New Zealand, “back home” to her, where summer is in full swing. There, among the luscious, burgeoning flower gardens of Auckland, are some of the things that the designer does best—pretty, semi-formal, covered-up flower dresses; crepe tailoring; a corseted top with matching trousers. This time, there was a soupçon of eccentricity with head coverings, either scarves printed to match dresses or spotted net veils that Wickstead attributed to her study of Cowles’s style.Her choice of location puts her on the same page as Rodarte, with its show of romantic dresses in a New York cemetery, and adjacent to the haunting girls–gardening film Simone Rocha shot with Tyler Mitchell for Moncler. Wickstead is far from being a conceptual designer, but her pictures tune into the odd, slightly saccharine atmospherics surrounding the sweet, modest thematics of the moment. Still, the real narrative moving Wickstead’s business forward is her pitch for protocol-compliant daywear, like her trousers and scarf-neck blouses in subtle, though distinctive, block colors. They’re ideally trimmed to the requirements of women who need to stand out while doing a job on public occasions: young British royals and the prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, included.
17 December 2018
When you think of Emilia Wickstead, the idea of English country garden parties is never far away. The designer launched her label designing for stylish Brits—royalty included—with a calendar full of social engagements where the dress code almost always calls for a pretty new dress. Executive realness, on the other hand, is hardly Wickstead’s strong suit. (It’s difficult to imagine her sophisticated clientele holding down a regular nine-to-five, for starters.) Still, the designer chose to open her show at the Phillips gallery in Mayfair this afternoon with a parade of pantsuits.Wickstead has a soft spot for mid-century design—as far as color and silhouette—though today she looked to the ’80s for inspiration (’80s by way of the 1940s to be precise.) Cream-color blouses with wide collars were peeking up from under beige and black blazers with slightly exaggerated shoulders and gently nipped waists. The billowy trousers and oversize trenchcoats were in a similar vein, and wouldn’t be out of place on Melanie Griffith inWorking Girl. There was a city slicker attitude to Wickstead’s popular evening jumpsuits, too. Cut with a décolletage-revealing neckline, they had a straightforward, businesslike sexiness that seemed uncharacteristic for the brand, though they were certainly attention-grabbing. More charming were the romantic, diaphanous evening gowns cut with a sensuous deep V-neckline, including one with a statement, ruffled shoulder that was rendered in metallic purple and cut away from the body entirely. A similar dress came printed with micro flowers, a signature Wickstead motif. Looks like these did much to loosen the buttoned-up aesthetic of seasons past, while maintaining a sense of elegance. Going forward, Wickstead would be wise to work in this direction.
17 September 2018
Emilia Wickstead said she’s been influenced by French ’60s movies for her Resort collection. She didn’t name which—it was more of a mood, perhaps, and definitely more in the sunny, country Provençal sense than film noir. She’s done well with reimagining retro floral wallpaper prints for summery dressing before now, and her segment of Technicolored, upholstery-type flowers hits that spot again.Familiarity—those tried-and-trusted shapes like midis, waists, and balloon sleeves—is, after all, a virtue for women who find themselves with a lot of social fixtures to get through. Wickstead is certainly an expert on taking the anxiety out of it for her customers. Anyone who doesn’t see herself in ditzy prints might also have her head turned by another side of Wickstead’s collection, particularly the A-line dress with a swirly psychedelic print of the kind you could easily imagine Veruschka or Elizabeth Taylor going for in the early ’70s. In other words, a lot of haughty fun—within the correct parameters.
16 July 2018
Emilia Wickstead’s brand has become synonymous with English high-society style: The New Zealand–born designer made her name crafting custom dresses for the likes of Kate Middleton. This season, she looked toward America for inspiration, drawing on the look of prep. Ali MacGraw in the ’70s classicLove Storyhas played muse to countless New York designers, though it’s more surprising to find her on a mood board in London. Her fresh-faced, collegiate flair was filtered through a distinctly ladylike lens at Wickstead’s show today. The most overt references to MacGraw’s wardrobe were in the choice of fabrics and patterns, starting with tweed suiting. The Savile Row–inspired look created a welcome lightweight feel on fluttering printed silk dresses with oversize bib collars and billowing sleeves.Major sleeves have been a big focus on the runway at Wickstead in the last few seasons, with everything from leg-of-mutton to bishop styles. This time around, though, it seemed as if the designer put unusual collar styles in the spotlight. Wimpole and Pilgrim collars in crisp white linen and cotton lent an Old World bent to the silhouette (or was it aHandmaid’s Taleeffect?), though the delicate heart embroidery on the opening look flew a little too close to the emoji keyboard. Wickstead is clearly trying to loosen her buttoned-up aesthetic, with the polished dark denim and extra-long outerwear being the most compelling examples, toeing the line between comfortable and chic. The starched dickie collars that topped some of the evening dresses, however, would have been best left out of the picture.
19 February 2018
One thing to say about Emilia Wickstead: She’s one of those London designers who’s become a modern “social success” with her fit-and-flare midis, long sleeves, and talent for color which chimes the right diplomatic note—noticeable, though never shouty—at a certain class of reception. These things come in waves in British society, and now that Meghan Markle is about to join the royal firm, things are about to get a lot busier, and let’s hope not too competitive, for designers like Wickstead, who already have the Duchess of Cambridge amongst their clients.What are the qualifications of a designer to royals and aristocracy? Over 60 years, some things have changed wildly (London society is now crammed with the super-rich of Russia and the Middle East, thus internationalizing a designer’s chances), but some things stay just the same. In the Queen’s young day, it was visits to Norman Hartnell on Bruton Street (watch the delicious reconstruction inThe Crown’s second season, when the couturier put on a private show for Her Majesty in anticipation of the state visit of John and Jackie Kennedy). In the ’80s, it was Diana, dodging paparazzi to visit Bellville Sassoon, Catherine Walker in Chelsea, and Jacques Azagury in Knightsbridge. Now, Emilia Wickstead is prime amongst those who dress Kate Middleton. At her classily modern store, wrapped around a corner on Sloane Street, plumb in the center of the eternal zone for royally-patronized fashion shops, the task now falls to Wickstead: How to steer through etiquette and the “appropriate” to end up with something that’s not boring?Wickstead’s Pre-Fall collection, nominally inspired by Little Edie Beale (her early years as a model and would-be starlet in the 1940s) shows the designer’s ability to stay within defined lines while offering something new. Rather than being aGrey Gardenscollection, it is instead destinationwear for those who just might be joining a dynasty, or otherwise need to execute formal social duties. There’s plenty here which can be imagined standing in reception lines at state banquets (the ’60s-look python sheath; the ice-blue princess-line full-skirted gown), at cocktail receptions (a mint green ’40s-flavored dress with high draped neck and full sleeves), and walkabouts (a long-sleeved windowpane checked shirtdress). Presumably, the Duchess will be back to her public duties after the birth of her third child next year.
But it’s Meghan Markle who’ll really be in need of a royal protocol–proof wardrobe, as she takes on the planned tour of the Commonwealth with Prince Harry after they marry. Perhaps she’ll look here.
20 December 2017
Emilia Wickstead is known for her ladylike dresses, but today she revealed a more risqué side to her signature, buttoned-up aesthetic. She opened the show with a series of translucent looks—an ankle-nipping, off-the-shoulder dress and a knee-length summer coat, for example—that took the popular #freethenipple campaign to an entirely new audience. It seems unlikely that Wickstead’s crowd of sophisticates, which this afternoon included the elegant aristo model Erin O’Connor in the front row, will brave London’s social circuit with a daring sheer ensemble, even if no-holds-barred dressing has been adopted by some of the world’s most watched women—Kendall Jenner and Rihanna, we’re looking at you! That said, the weightless quality of these summer clothes certainly had universal appeal. Layered over pretty lace underpinnings, you could imagine Wickstead’s sheer floral shirtdress getting all the right attention at an English country garden party.Still, the designer didn’t abandon her signature demure tailoring completely. There were several of the floor-sweeping, nip-waisted coatdresses that Kate Middleton made famous here, including one that was replete with Marie Antoinette bows. Some of the more dramatic evening looks, however, such as the cocktail dress with a voluminous bustle and a floral bustier gown with a ballooning hem, could have benefitted from a lighter hand. The balance was struck in a shimmering black jumpsuit finished with shiny gold buttons that alluded to the skin and gave the idea of unconventional evening an alluring mystique.
18 September 2017
Emilia Wickstead has made a career out of dressing London’s most stylish socials though she’s steadily building a fan base across the pond. It’s why she chose to present her first official Resort collection in New York yesterday. The New Zealand-born designer was clearly angling to seduce fashion-conscious Anglophiles with her new clothes—cue pretty English rose motifs and ladylike Peter Pan collars. Wickstead said she’d been looking at Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe for inspiration and yet the overall effect of her long-sleeved silk and chiffon tea dresses with billowy sleeves was more country garden than artist atelier. Picasso was her reference for the color palette, and several of the now-signature crepe maxi dresses were dosed in vibrant turquoise and tangerine—a color that has been not-so-quietly making the rounds, along with lemon yellow, this season.Wickstead recently launched her first wedding collection, though her latest offering appeared to be headed in a more casual direction: She’s expanded her knitwear and the denim she launched for Fall. Whether her designer mom jeans will catch on in America, the land of true blue connoisseurs, remains to be seen. On the other hand, the neat polo shirts and cardigans with jewellike buttons had a subtle eccentric, English charm that felt universally appealing.
8 June 2017
British designers have a reputation for making rabble-rousing fashion, but on the flip side of that anarchic coin is a traditionalist, lady-of-the-manor aesthetic.Emilia Wicksteadis well acquainted with this rarefied milieu. The New Zealander started her business designing made-to-measure pieces for London’s high society—Duchess Katherine is still one of her most famous clients—out of her studio in Belgravia, just skipping distance from Buckingham Palace. There are certainly royal airs and graces to her designs, and it makes perfect sense that she was among the first to embrace the Elizabethan- and Tudor-inspired trend that has blown up in the past couple of seasons. You could trace the billowy princess-worthy statement sleeves on the runway today, from the easy print-on-floral-print blouses for day right through to the more dramatic velvet evening dresses.Wickstead has been broadening her range of late, and her new collection goes beyond cocktail hour to encompass the casual polish of a sophisticated off-duty wardrobe. She introduced jeans to her line this season, and the high-waisted, raw denim pants had a pristine, tailored finish that worked well in the lineup of floor-sweeping gowns. Wickstead has been loosening up the demure look of her brand overall, and the use of gauzy cottons and diaphanous silks lent a sense of lightness to the clothes. The designer has an eye for luxurious fabric, though it was tough to make out the intricate beading and embellishment in the glimmering half-light of the space. These were the kind of details that would be better appreciated in the intimate setting of an atelier. Still, the shimmering sequined silver dress was a standout, and would likely steal the spotlight in just about any room, along with Wickstead’s chic ruby red velvet sandals.
18 February 2017
Love hotels, the short-stay residences associated with illicit encounters, showed up on the mood board forEmilia Wickstead’s show today. It was an unlikely reference for the British designer, who is known for her prim-and-proper aesthetic. Fans of the label will know that she made a name for herself dressmaking for London’s most high-profile social women; ladylike codes are her thing above and beyond anything else. She seemed to have loosened the reigns on her signature buttoned-up look for Spring 2017, and the sheer fabrics and insinuations of skin injected the clothes with a nice sense of levity where they had tended toward heaviness in the past. As for the love hotel reference? It came through in a more subtle way than you might expect, via charming floral prints that could have been pulled from the walls of some fusty late-’60s motel. On gauzy, ankle-length cotton dresses the result was ultimately more innocent than salacious. In fact, the ruched long-sleeved shirts and Elizabethan-style lace collars echoed the renaissance faire feeling that was seen on the runway at J.W.Anderson just hours earlier and elsewhere last season—clearly, theGames of Throneseffect is showing no signs of slowing down.Wickstead has dressed women for numerous royal engagements in her time—Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, was famously among her first clients—and yet it was the low-key daywear that made the biggest impression today, including a pale blue pussy-bow dress covered in a micro floral pattern and a nightgown-inspired ruffled cotton frock that seemed made for an English summer picnic.Surprisingly, the pants were a standout in the lineup, particularly when paired with gently puff-sleeved knits. The gingham high-waisted trousers were the most compelling of the lot, and would fit right in with the statement styles that the Duchess has been wearing lately. They’d be a good investment for stylish, hardworking non-royals as well, for that matter.
17 September 2016
Emilia Wicksteadhas an affinity for mid-century modern design and so Erwin Blumenfeld, whose photography colored the pages ofVoguein the ’40s and ’50s, was an obvious picture reference for her new Fall collection. The ladylike ankle-length silhouette Wickstead has become known for was filtered through shades of dusty lavender, mustard yellow, and seafoam green, and there was a literal nod to Blumenfeld’s works of abstraction in a striped fabric that was spliced with sheer horizontal lines, and used to flattering effect on a long-sleeve dress with a trompe l’oeil V-neck.Coatdresses are something of a Wickstead signature, and have been worn by a number of London’s society women, including a certain Duchess of Cambridge. She worked denim into her lineup for the first time, a fabric more commonly associated with dudes on the ranch than royalty, and the belted denim trench had an unfussy chicness about it, which Kate Middleton would approve of. Wickstead’s idea of sexy tends to be more buttoned-up than most, and her use of heavy tweeds and jacquards did bog down some of her more interesting experiments in shape and form, including the suiting and extra-wide flares in the collection. There was a welcome lightness to the closing looks, though, and the long, lean skirt that came covered with a charming ribbon motif and paired with a fitted bustier-style top was a standout. It made for a chic and modern portrait of a lady.
20 February 2016
Emilia Wickstead, a designer known for dressing some of the most high-profile women in London society, rolled out a bubblegum pink carpet for her models today. That saccharine color was perhaps a nod to the ’50s optimism that inspired the collection, which was awash with soft hues recalling the era, such as pistachio, mustard, and apricot. It was the floral prints, though, which could have been swiped from a ’50s dining room, that made the biggest impression. The cropped high-waisted pants and blouse that were sprigged with contrasting flower arrangements, for instance, were a modern way to wear the traditional, ladylike motif.Of course dresses are still Wickstead’s mainstay, and there were plenty to choose from. The designer isn’t one to shy away from volume; one billowing geometric print look fell somewhere between a cape and a dress, and another came with an impressive Watteau train. Her experiments with proportion were at their most successful when confined to the sleeve of a frock; somehow the gathered bishop sleeves felt more medieval than mid-century modern, a vaguelyGame of Thrones-ian feeling that has been coming through this season. (Incidentally, Michele Clapton, the show’s costume designer, is up for anEmmy Awardthis weekend.) That subtle yet dramatic approach to evening will no doubt find favor with Wickstead’s circle of well-dressed and well-connected fans.
19 September 2015
Wes Anderson must surely be fashion's favorite cinematic prism. Today it was Emilia Wickstead's turn to cite Anderson's dreamily diffractive filter as her collection's muse, although she at first called him Wes Gordon. "I'm pregnant, by the way," she said after correcting herself. "That's my excuse!"You could see why Wickstead felt the yen for a spot of sideways reassessment. Her gowns—they are very much gowns—and separates have a timeless swoonsome-ness to them that Lauren Bacall would have relished. Thanks to these, Wickstead has stamped herself a large footprint from a small base, particularly on the red carpet. Today the main event section of faded but peppy texturized gowns and separates catered to that audience: The flash rather drowned the richness of these pieces, and they needed viewing from all angles, but they were typically conservatively lovely to behold. Many had little hip-sourced pleated capelets that fell backwards—sort of negative peplums. Other tricksy details included bunches of fold and gathering puckered at the shoulder, elbow, or small of the back. Wickstead went big on patch pockets; she said she had been looking at service uniforms.That trusty Anderson filter kicked in at look 23, in a rusty tartan of silk shot through with reflective synthetics that suddenly ramped up the acid factor. And then, could it be, black PVC? Wickstead confessed that even her workroom staff was shocked when she showed up with a bolt of it. Whether her core constituency wants a frisson of the incongruous is debatable. And Wickstead straightened her tilt at kinkiness by maintaining that a floor-length coat in the material would make a practical raincoat—pshaw. This was her Margot's fur moment, but it may not have been necessary: The Wickstead woman is serene.
21 February 2015
"I had this vision of a young girl getting dressed up for a night out, dancing in front of the mirror to someone like David Bowie or Bryan Ferry, and very excited at perhaps seeing her crush at the club that night." So said Emilia Wickstead after her Spring show, summing up the spirit of her youthful collection.Wickstead is known for her use of color, and her tangerine duster coat over a blush-pink dress stood out, as did pieces in egg-yolk yellow, muted lime green, and duck-egg blue. A silk and cotton-weave mini jumpsuit with an overcoat was also a highlight. Silhouettes varied: There were relaxed looks with loose, boxy cuts, as well as dresses with nipped waists. The only hint of a print came through some structured striped pieces: "I am a little obsessed with stripes," said Wickstead. All in all, the designer is having a moment: Moda Operandi chose her for their inaugural London trunk show on Monday, and she has just opened a store on Sloane Street.
13 September 2014
OK, everybody. Forget what you thought you knew about Emilia Wickstead, because the designer has suddenly done a fashion volte-face. The old Emilia Wickstead, very much a to-the-manor-born designer, known for her pink and citrus palettes and super-feminine silhouettes, suddenly went all goth-metal today, with a decidedly masculine edge.The first few looks effectively jolted the crowd wide-awake (half of them were jet-lagged). A featherlight napa leather coat opened the show, and yes, it was beautifully tailored, but definitely dark and masculine. The pearl and Swarovski crystals appliquéd onto the seam lines added a much-needed lightness to the strong look. Then came python prints, which, when combined with a leather skirt, looked like some kind of "don't mess with me" city armor. AMatrix-esque leather coat followed, the whole thing made more armorlike by the "film noir" headgear inspired by a vintage photograph the designer keeps on her desk. These pieces still had Wickstead's hallmark tailoring and fabric innovations, but their look and feel were radically different from anything she has done before.The crowd palpably relaxed as some more familiar looks came down. A tangerine jumpsuit had Wickstead returning to her citrusy color palette, then dresses in blue and cream lace overlay took us out of the goth-metal clubs and back, safely, to the manor. And then came the jumpsuit. It now seems like a garment we have to accept as a wardrobe mainstay, like a blouse or a trouser, and Wickstead's white take on it was mathematically perfect. As were the honeycomb dresses and coats in a luxurious black crepe that had buyers craning their necks for a closer look.There were some ensembles that had no right to look good, but did, including a blush pink lace jacket over a python skirt. Its success may have something to do with the fact that Wickstead was using a stylist for the first time (Donatella Musco). Then there were other looks that were immediately gorgeous: namely, a cream and gray floral coat and dress that had sellout written all over them.Wickstead is still relatively new to the scene, so it's good to know that she isn't getting complacent. Perhaps she felt she was getting pigeonholed into a certain mold and this was her way of breaking out, even if just for a few looks. Message received—and appreciated. After all, in fashion it's always better to surprise than to sedate.
14 February 2014
Emilia Wickstead has always been known for her feminine touch and a fresh color palette. Her charming aesthetic has won her a devoted fan base, most notably the Duchess of Cambridge. Her gorgeous colors were out in force today: Neapolitan-ice-cream hues appeared on a cotton-and-silk sheath, a finely executed bandeau jumpsuit came in a bright tomato red honeycomb-effect fabric, and tangerine and strawberry pink were especially lovely on striped dresses that she left unlined to emphasize their lightness. There was a lot of sweeping drama here. Both the duchess and Wickstead have recently had babies, perhaps explaining the more forgiving silhouette.All pretty, but also pretty standard stuff. Then Wickstead shifted gears, sending out a creamy white dress with a brilliantly executed fan-pleated detail on the back. It was noteworthy on its own, until Wickstead informed us backstage that it was made from denim. To make the stuff of jeans look like structured silk takes real talent.Wickstead said she was inspired by the Memphis blues this season, and there were strains of Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" on the speakers. It may not be the duchess' cup of tea, but the piano and musical-notes print that appeared on a little strapless dress and a top and matching culottes made for a fun, flirty change of tempo. Nice to see this designer move beyond her comfort zone.
14 September 2013
When the folks at Royal Ascot chose an Emilia Wickstead dress to put in this year's promotional campaign, the move neatly summed up the brand: thoroughbred, regal, and very English. No surprise, then, that the Duchess of Cambridge is a fan. Today's Fall outing seems only to have underscored that point. Although the show notes suggest that the inspiration was the workingwoman as embodied by Diana Vreeland, we saw it a bit differently: more like a working royal, on a walkabout seeing to her subjects. The question is, was this Camilla or Kate?The mismatched houndstooth and the Prince of Wales check of some of the looks said it was Camilla. Their solid tailoring was a reminder that made-to-measure was the foundation of Wickstead's business. But a long-sleeve, blush pink damask dress seemed better suited to Kate; its decorum is sure to be palace-pleasing. A short dress daintily embroidered with pearls and a coordinating short coat, likewise, had every woman in the room straining for a better look. If there was a weakness, it was the floral prints, in particular the brown cabbage rose that looked better suited for subject than queen. Wickstead's mastery lies in her precise fit and choice of colors. Her signature is that blush pink; they could name a Farrow & Ball shade after it—Emilia Pink, anyone?
16 February 2013
It's tempting to dismiss Emilia Wickstead. Her brand is just…so…posh. The shop in Belgravia. Her background as a made-to-measure designer for those to the manor born. That stuff in the notes at her show today about Marella Agnelli, Gloria Guinness, C. Z. Guest, and Babe Paley being "society swans." Good god! That's the kind of thing to make a person want to grab a scythe and have a go at members of the .0001 percent.And yet. Even the dabbling Marxist must admit that Wickstead is a very good designer. The clothes she showed this season—her second doing ready-to-wear—were atavistically polite, but they were sneaky, too. Wickstead knows how to cut the decorousness with a weird touch, like the splash of chartreuse on a crisp white dress, or the exaggerated flare of a peplum. And she's not above a little tasteful sexiness. But her best trick is her boldness with material. A simple sleeveless black dress with a full skirt, for instance, got much of its punch from the tonal leaf print it was made from. There was something a little off about that print, and it made the look special. And Wickstead had a thing of glory, too, in her superluxurious hand-painted fabrics done in a cool, abstract check pattern. A broad skirt in the material, slit cheekily high, looked pretty edgy paired with a top of black and white striped silk. Sigh. Rich girls really do have it all.
14 September 2012
It shouldn't be read as pretentious that Emilia Wickstead came out before her show to greet guests and explain the collection à la old-school couture. After all, until last season Wickstead's business was entirely made-to-measure and run out of the sleek Belgravia atelier that the intimate but influential crowd jostled into today.An English country inspiration is making the rounds, but Wickstead gave it a modern spin. The clopping of hooves on the soundtrack was the most overt manifestation. She went thematic in a landscape print of Windsor Castle with tiny horses galloping across full skirts and neat waists, but it was nearly abstract. Otherwise, her take on classic femininity is too squeaky clean to really go there.Wickstead is not edgy. As such she seems more suited to New York or Milan, where she's worked respectively for Narciso Rodriguez, Proenza Schouler, and Giorgio Armani. But, oh, does this girl know her way around pieces that women want to wear. You could almost sense the making of mental shopping lists—and by women with highly varied sensibilities—for a red tea dress, for all the pleated pieces, and for the pink jumpsuit with bell sleeves and natty mannish trousers. Kate Middleton should surely take note, but you could see Kate Moss grabbing something, too.There is, of course, a little frisson of something here. She'll be selling some of those pleated skirts as sheer as they were shown. And the combination of powder pink and poppy red provided a little jolt, especially when a model in a pale shift made a turn to reveal an unexpected shock of bright pleats in back. If she balances that seesaw just right, Wickstead's got a big future.
16 February 2012