It s not fair to thrust an eighties theme on a designer who didn t intend one, but that s what happened to Danielle Scutt after her show. Where others saw something Mugler-esque in the black suit with dramatic red cutout lapels and skirt detail that opened Scutt s show, she saw…prize cockerels. "The red shape s from the coxcomb they have," she insisted, shrugging that the eighties mean little to her: "I was only born in 1981."
Nevertheless, Scutt s woman, with her manipulated feather-print bodysuits and strong shoulders, is an unmistakably feisty bird who is now bent on survival. Scutt said she d returned to her obsession with decorative poultry breeds—a theme she s explored before—because she wanted to do something intense and condensed in a tough financial season. "What I like about cockerels," she explained, "is their plumage and their pride. And because I could only do a small show, I started remembering everything you have to do to stand out when you re graduating from Saint Martins: Make the strongest statement you can in a few outfits." Still, Scutt used her airtime on the runway to prove that she s come a long way from a student mentality in some ways—the dramatic swing-back coat and a re-embroidered printed jersey tunic dress had the hallmarks of a growing sophistication.
