For autumn/winter, Emporio Armani presented a sumptuous collection made for the adventurous gamine socialite.

Youthful experimentation can easily become an overdone cliche. But when wiser and more prominent fashion houses like Emporio Armani turn to experimentation, it’s truly a thing to celebrate. Unlike the beautiful but classically-rendered collections of the their past, Emporio Armani’s AW’13 collection, dubbed Kajal, combines the lasting trends of past eras, such as 1920’s bowler hats and deep Deco cuts, with thoroughly modern globalisation.

The silhouettes are long and simple, but the roughly hewn fabrics and playful accessories bring in the experimental edge. Soft pink trousers paired with a grey pea coat harken the androgynous style of fashionable West End gamine girls. A decadent scarlet velvet dress with emphasised, sculptural hips calls upon Moroccan autumns, while sky-blue mohair trousers are relaxed enough for a stroll through San Francisco’s bay area. This season, the Armani girl is both new and nostalgic- she might be a spur-of-the-moment jet setter, but she’s still a lover of the classics.

Words: Elise Marraro