Thomas Tait s show this evening was held in a car park near Trafalgar Square. Looked at one way, that served as an appropriate setting for his race-car-driver-themed collection. After all, racers do drive cars. As suggestive as the setting was, however, it was misleading in one important way: Whereas a parking lot is where cars go for a time-out, Tait s collection was incontrovertibly built for speed. This was a confident outing for Tait—a very focused show that interpreted racing apparel in a pretty literal way but, nevertheless, made it convincing as fashion. Tait s jumpsuits, track pants, anoraks, and color-blocked tops all reported back to his theme, but it wasn t difficult to extract pieces from the collection that could viably be worn on the street, in particular any of the array of low-slung, attitude-fronting trousers.
One of his best ideas here was to make the trousers in a semitransparent nylon and show them over color-blocked leggings; that look will get a lot of editorial play, but it s also likely to diffuse and make its way into women s day-to-day wardrobes. Elsewhere, Tait had some standout looks in his quilted pieces, puffer jackets, sweatshirts, and coats with quilted ribs so thick they seemed likely to withstand bullets or a high-impact crash. And that was the intent, of course. All in all, this collection confirmed the impression made by Tait s show last season, that this indisputably talented designer had found his voice and his métier. The Tait woman, it seems, is living life on the edge—and to suit her, he s designing clothes high on adrenaline.
