With femininity and its trappings the central subject of the fall shows, this lookbook drop from Phoebe Philo couldn’t be better timed. Philo has always been piquant on this subject, whether that meant putting women in Birkenstock-ish sandals when flats on the runway were almost unheard of, or scaling down her fashion show when she was expecting a child, prioritizing health and happiness over what we’d call Earned Media Value today, even though the Celine phenomenon she had spearheaded was near its peak.
So what does Philo have to say about how women should get dressed in 2025? Nothing as mundane as an hourglass curve or a power shoulder. Consider, instead, her one-piece jacket and apron skirt combo, which turns to very nearly reveal a flash of backside. So confident and so cheeky. For the customer who prefers to style the look with trousers, the back-zip pants are worth a close look. An elaboration on a pair she showed in her first PP collection, which bared the skin behind the zips, these unzip to fabric, allowing the wearer to adjust the volume of the legs without exposing anything—cool irreverence with a welcome dash of practicality.
Other novelties here include a high necked sweater with a sculptural drape and strap trousers that fully unzip at the knees. For Philo fans, skirts with a neo-Renaissance hip construction made with jersey bonded to neoprene echoed a silhouette she first proposed at her last show for Celine, only here more pronounced. She used a similar bonding technique to give sculptural form to a knit top. Meanwhile, if there’s a shoe that can make women kick their flats habit, it just may be this season’s new mule, which takes its construction cues from a cowboy boot, with a row of silvery nail heads punctuating the sharply angular toe front.
