Neil Barrett s womenswear started as a very calculated transposition of his menswear, hard edges and all. They were clothes for tomboys. But one day every tomboy finds a dress she likes, and a whole new world opens up.
You could say all the fringing in Barrett s new Resort collection literally softened the hard edges, but that wouldn t strictly be true. The lines were still as defined, the details as sculpted, the palette as monochrome as ever, and the studded, pierced, stacked-sole oxfords were a boy/girl s dream footwear. Still, there was something distinctly feminine going on. Barrett s own description was "lady meets street." One word: bouclé! That most ladylike of yarns was all over this lineup, as an insert on dresses, cut into a biker jacket, with a fringed hem, and worked into a jacquard in the camo pattern that was, Barrett said, "the fantasy, the color of the collection." Another word: ruffles! Or at least the designer s reinterpretation of the idea, with deep folds sculpted from duchesse satin draped over a shift or a skirt. A classic Barrett hybrid was the bomber jacket with the skirt of a coat attached, cut into panels because he felt the movement this allowed was more feminine. In the same vein: cargo pants in knit, softer and more fluid.
Yet it s always going to be that refined, almost military precision that seduces Barrett s customers, whatever their gender. One of this collection s early sales successes was the peacoat-cape combination with the tidy little pagoda shoulder. Silhouette in excelsis.
