"I always have a lot of references," Mulberry creative director Emma Hill said backstage after round two of the label s four mini-shows. For Spring, her list included abandoned fairgrounds, Sofia Coppola s The Virgin Suicides, refracted light, and Tim Walker photographs. Hill set her scene just right with a runway that wound around a spooky-sweet circle of carousel horses, with the soundtrack of Air s "Highschool Lover" putting all present into a dreamy fashion trance. That hazy element of Hill s vision was a boon to the collection, keeping its sweet touches of big bows and puffed sleeves from becoming saccharine.
The look was Coppola s Lisbon sisters crossed with your cool seventies babysitter, the one with the groovy fringed leather bag. She would have been thrilled to see the swingy strings on the stacked-heel moccasin booties that ended up being an integral part of the postshow chatter. There was fringe on bags, too, but the best was a simple, double-buckled messenger named the Alexa after New York s newest fashion obsession, Ms. Chung. Also of note was Hill s recasting of the label s signature leather jackets, the biker and the poacher. Now in washed soft hues, they re the kind of thing you want to wear every day. Now that s a fashion dream.
