There was a subterranean Alice in Wonderland vibe to the Mulberry presentation today. Under normal circumstances, that s the kind of cutesy/kooky look this brand works overtime to telegraph, in very non-subterranean ways, but in this instance it was accidental, a byproduct of the collection s theme of enlargement. After a while, watching all those swollen sleeves, giant sweaters, magnified checks, and mega-size pleats come down the runway put you in mind of a shrunken Alice, searching for the pill that would make her big again. The emphasis on disproportion was conscious here; one suspected that the slightly surreal effect was not.
But then again, who knows? With this collection, Mulberry s Emma Hill seemed to aim for a new mood, a brooding tone atypical of her distinctly chipper style. The palette was almost uniformly dark, with an emphasis on black, wine tones, and a very pretty deep emerald. Aside from some accenting hits of yellow, there was nothing bright on the runway. And Hill s best prints, dense florals that she also executed in jacquard, had a weird, moonlit quality, as if one were sleepwalking through a garden at night. The enveloping rich and fuzzy textures hinted at something similarly uncanny. So there was a strangeness to this collection, which was welcome, but it wasn t quite strange enough. As a whole, the show communicated Mulberry s upbeat party line, which is that a gentle eccentricity is best celebrated through clothes that are a touch girlish and very natty and polished. The most reiterated silhouette was a short skirt with giant, cheerleader-style godet pleats. This season, the cheerleader was summoning a dreamy, dark attitude. But you never got the sense she wouldn t make it to the pep rally on time.
