Danielle Scutt has a strong, sui generis design point of view. Actually, she has two of them: There s the Scutt who showed up on the Spring 2012 runway, all slouchy denim and rudegirl attitude, and then there s the Scutt of this season s forties-inflected collection. What unites the two is a lack of prissiness: Whether in her tomboy mode or tapping a vein of glam, Scutt is a designer with a commitment to conveying female strength through her clothes. That s almost enough of a through-line to stave off whiplash. Still, it s hard to look at the new collection—a tightly edited group mainly comprising well-wrought, full-skirted dresses—and not wish that it had been infused with Spring s streetwise sneer. Just so, last season you found yourself looking in vain for some of the effortless womanliness in plain view here today, and in Scutt s collection for Fall/Winter 2011. If and when Scutt manages to bring the womanliness and the toughness together, she ll be a force to be reckoned with.
