Volume is one of the season s big stories. That puts Véronique Leroy, who has quite a way with all things oversize and full, right in the thick of things. Leroy doesn t seem to design a collection as much as construct one, particularly with the heftier fabrics of fall and winter. Her narrative this time conjured a rebellious girl who s trying to become a productive member of society. Her solution is to co-opt her elegant mother s clothes. The happy ending: She gets a job and merges mumsy s wardrobe with her punk sensibility.
Would you read that in the tea leaves of these 36 looks? It s doubtful, but that s not a bad thing. Even as the show cycled from melancholy blacks to proper tweeds and, eventually, ladylike pastels, there was a real cohesiveness in the boxy, sixties-tinged shapes. The story provided the element of tension in, for instance, all those skirtsuit-y silhouettes worn with platform-wedge combat boots and blackened silver floral necklaces and cuffs, or the layering of coats and cardigans that Leroy saw as her muse s main mode of sartorial rebellion.
As ever with Leroy, her fabrics, like trompe l oeil fake furs made out of mohair and wool, and the great bouncy nylon jacquard knits, were worthy of note. But it s the slightly off-kilter yet alluring proportions that gave this collection its strong point of view.
