Expect More Great Coats from Chloé’s Clare Waight Keller
Chloé’s Clare Waight Keller tells us about those coats we just can’t get enough of. She says they’re her “thing.”
Chloé’s Clare Waight Keller tells us about those coats we just can’t get enough of. She says they’re her “thing.”
There’s something special—something truly appealing—about Chloé’s new SoHo outpost at 93 Greene Street. It’s Manhattan’s second Chloé store, but the first to be designed under the watch of creative director Clare Waight Keller. (The Madison Avenue location will be remodeled in the fall to better reflect her tastes.)
What makes this spot so intriguing? Well, unlike most boutiques—cool or not—it’s the kind of place you want to live in, not just visit.
This weekend in Paris, Chloe celebrated its 60th birthday with the opening of a retrospective exhibit called Chloé.ATTITUDES at the Palais de Tokyo.
Having only a sense of what Chloe looks like under the creative direction of ’70s-leaning minimalist cool girls–from Stella McCartney to to Phoebe Philo to Hannah MacGibbon to Clare Waight Keller–I was surprised to see how whimsical and how much of a sense of humor the label had under earlier designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Maxime de La Falaise. A white v-neck bathing suit with a pineapple on the crotch? Why not?
PARIS–It’s former Pringle of Scotland designer Clare Waight Keller‘s second season as the creative director for Chloé and she told me designing her second collection for the house was “nerve-wracking the second time around because you know what’s coming…[but] intense and really enjoyable to work on.”
Could part of that “nerve-wracking” have to do with working in a city where industry rumors, rumors about designers being replaced at big fashion houses, are a dime a dozen? “The gossip is on a whole different level here,” Waight Keller said. “It feels different–you know people at different houses but you’re in your own world as well.”
Good thing. Because Waight Keller’s vision for Chloé is beginning to take shape–and it’s all about her own world.
PARIS–Some fashion labels, a few French ones among them, have been slow to embrace the digital world as a legitimate and influential voice in the industry. “Online” and “blog” are sometimes dirty, cringe-inducing words around here (though fortunately, that’s less and less the case). But, still, how refreshing, that Chloe’s new creative director Clare Waight Keller, not only looks at blogs, but says she was inspired by the real girls on street style blogs for her debut collection for the storied French house.
“For me Chloe is about what’s real, what’s now and it was about really capturing the spirit of how women dress today,” she told us after the show. “Actually, I looked at a lot of blogs [because] those are cool girls, out there, right now, wearing clothes. It’s really inspiring to see how women put things together–it gave me a sense of what I should try to achieve in this show.”
To that end she showed easy breezy dresses and separates in lighter than air pleated chiffons done in vertical stripes in a palette of cream, camel, brown, dusty rose and aqua. Pants and skirts sat boyishly low on the hips with wide belts, while blouses were a bit loose and boxy. That sexy, Chloe femininity was inserted by way of thigh high slits on dresses. Girly touches were added in floral prints on white button downs and shorts. Alexa Chung was a perfect poster-girl for the collection in the front row (though you might need her body to pull some of this stuff off).
After receiving lukewarm reviews for her snakeskin print-heavy Fall 2011 collection, rumors swirled last March that Chloé designer Hannah MacGibbon would be ousted from the label. Word then came that Chloé had extended MacGibbon’s contract for one more season. In hindsight, the label’s statement at the time was somewhat cryptic. The higher-ups at Chloé told WWD, “Hannah is still with us, that’s all I can say.” Not an entirely convincing vote of confidence.
News broke this morning that effective June 1, Pringle of Scotland’s former creative director Clare Waight Keller would be taking the helm at Chloé. Hannah MacGibbon will “pursue new projects.”
Overall, New York Fashion Week kept to a very neutral palette, but when color was needed designers went straight for neon yellows and lime greens to brighten their quiet visions of spring. We spotted it at Jonathan Saunders, Brian Reyes and Marc by Marc, of course. But Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi of Preen, Yigal Read more →
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