Clare Waight Keller performed a little fashion magic with the new Pringle collection. She wove cashmere with a soluble yarn that dissolved when the material was washed, leaving a mesh of impossibly perfect little cashmere squares, and she made that almost as much a feature of the collection as the huge, slouchy pants with deep, standout pockets. Waight Keller based the trousers on fishermen s waders and paired them with skinny little tops in the mesh to create a seventies-ish silhouette.
But I was flashing much further back. That mesh was like something from the Middle Ages, with the tone-on-tone argyle as a ducal insignia. Waight Keller layered tabardlike shapes over kilts, evoking a medieval warrior woman. The green velvets she used, meanwhile, reminded me of colors worn by wandering minstrels. That was a wildly fanciful reaction on my part, but it did underscore the strong Celtic strain in the collection, which is fundamental to the Pringle DNA.
If those waders weren t entirely successful (that s a lot of pant for a body to bear), fishermen s knits contributed to a couple of the collection s strongest pieces: the white cabled sweater elongated into a dress, and the black knit with the swingy pleats and the mass of bobble around the shoulders. The designer s skill with knitwear was also obvious in the gray dress that side-tied over a gunmetal leather skirt.
Though Pringle is a work in progress, what stands out most clearly at this point is Waight Keller s confidence in integrating her own particular vision with the company s 195 years of history (and, beyond that, the essence of Scotland itself). She s taking risks en route. Hopefully, she ll soon start to reap the rewards.
