If you blinked at Martin Grant, you probably missed one of the most reality-worthy trompe l oeil effects this season: a perfect little belted taffeta coat-dress designed with a front flap so as to look like a skirtsuit. Stick a fork in you, you re chic. It s the kind of precise, can t-fail piece that lands Lee Radziwill in Grant s front row every season.
But his major story for Spring was color, mostly yellow, to which the designer says he s usually averse. It was perfect in the zippy hem of a khaki trench, echoed in lemony Louboutin sandals below. However, in larger doses, you tripped over it. Still, a designer like Grant could easily coast on what he knows is proper. A push out of the comfort zone is a sign of life.
For evening, he kept lines long and a little bit disco with superwide silk jersey palazzo pants and jumpsuits masquerading as gowns, a continuation of last season s quest for ease. The former had a cool swagger when paired with a waist-shaping tuxedo vest. All that languid energy—not to mention those carefully placed slashes—significantly ramped up the sex appeal at a show where polish usually reigns. The most daring moment came before the car-wash gowns (an odd seventies aberration?) that closed the show: a sheer pleated gown with a sort of petal-shaped satin exoskeleton, certainly a dress where precision counts.
