Here comes the sun! This season Phillip Lim gave his imaginary muse a name—Soleil—and designed a collection fitted to her summery personality. Despite evidence to the contrary, Lim made winter seem a cheerful affair, with brightly colored patchwork shearlings, peppy cold-weather pastels, pretty collage print dresses and button-down tops. What s not to like? Apparently even Soleil has some dark moods, however, and Lim s show was the better for it. If the upbeat clothes were very appealing, the ones that came out later, in deeper colors, had a moody poetry that added dimension to the collection. Of particular note were the knits, with their waterfalls of irregular ruffles. One ruffled sweater, in navy, made for a very convincing evening proposition when paired with Lim s nicely judged silk-satin wrap-over pant. As is typical for 3.1 Phillip Lim, the individual pieces here made a stronger statement than the collection as a whole, and this show was chock-full of additions to Fall s must-have list: The lace-up boots, one of those shearling coats, a baggy trench, a mid-calf skirt in lavender and aubergine…. Lim is keeping his Soleils happy, making stuff like that; it s not clear he needs to do more.
