No one likes to be put in a box. So it s not surprising that Matthew Williamson works to distance himself from his origins as a designer to Ibizan party girls. For Spring, Williamson conjured an exotic locale with no Pacha, no Amnesia, and not much of anything else. "My storyboard is a girl marooned on a deserted island," he said. "She has her Western wardrobe, and over time she becomes one with nature, picking up organic textures and materials."
To underline the collection s raw quality, Williamson set the stage with a pristine white tent built inside the distinctly urban and industrial Battersea Power Station. A single glass wall and glass ceiling exposed panels of the decrepit space. This is no place for a bikini or caftan, it all seemed to say, and sure enough, the city-chic foundation of the collection was smart but languid tailoring in cargo pants, safari blouses, and wide, pleated trousers and shorts, along with constructed, body-hugging dresses featuring chunks of beading.
For embellishment, Williamson s MacGyver-like muse might trim her tweeds in raffia and then knot herself up a bustier with a swingy fringe. Come evening, her parachute becomes a billowing gown shaped by drawstrings and trussed with a leftover length of macramé. The concept yielded mixed and sometimes clunky results, but there were some standouts, including a navy safari blouse tucked into a gold peacock feather skirt and a dark keyhole frock with a neckline edged in silver beading. It s a pity, then, that this girl s all dressed up with only the coconuts to bear witness.
