It is helpful to think of Trager Delaney s London-based designers Kim Trager and Lowell Delaney as crack anthropologists. They are keen students of people, and they want their clothes to tell those people s stories. Or, more accurately, they like to create rococo tales of what those stories might be. Case in point, this season s nicely observed take on English council estate aesthetics, with their track suits, big tees, and sexed-up Saturday night dresses, which Trager and Delaney spun into a Scarface-inspired yarn about a poor boy who s made it big, and so now he and his girl are getting into some conspicuous consumption. This was a collection very much about what people with nothing think rich people have—smoking jackets, red merino furs trimmed in stingray gold python, velvet track suits lined in organza. More than a few actually rich women are going to want to own those python-trimmed coats and velvet track suits, the latter of which feature leg-length zips that open to reveal skin winking through that sheer organza. And that ratifies Trager and Delaney s larger point here, which is that—vacated of their class connotations—lots of so-called naff looks are actually pretty awesome. Get with the bling, people. Get with the bling.
