After the first look out, one might have encountered a niggling suspicion: Was this the Milly show? But the gift bags under the seats confirmed it; we were in the right place to see Michelle Smith s playful and deeply wearable contemporary line. And yet, her show kicked off with an ensemble that felt pretty enigmatic, particularly in light of Fall s ballerina-inspired fare: a mesh bomber with dolman sleeves and matching skirt, topped off with an asymmetrically knotted (and faintly Demeulemeester-esque) head scarf—all noir.
It was a choice that made more sense upon learning about Smith s fodder for the collection—conceptual art, specifically that of John Baldessari and Dan Graham (whose site-specific work, presently gracing the Met rooftop, inspired the show s mirror-heavy set). A few looks in and Smith s vision of the artists looked more typically digestible and sporty. Her evident love of fabrication yielded some good things, from a double-face organza that sandwiched delicate threads of raffia, to a custom jacquard in a mod dolly-girl print, to another geometric number held together with whisper-thin clear filaments. Shapes leaned mostly toward the modish, with plenty of sports-bra tops and track-pant-like trousers. But the collection wasn t without its surprises. The pairing of an A-line skirt in the aforementioned organza with a sweater in a delightfully oversize knit felt right on the money—pretty damned charming, in fact.
