Stuart Vevers’ womenswear catwalk was all about the florals with a touch of leather edge.
Flower power
Floral prints were the order of the day at Coach’s Spring/Summer 2016 show. Prairie prints exuded a romantic, hippie feel combined with flowing hemlines and chiffons, but more often than not the patchwork style of tiered dresses combined with floral jackets on top, resulted in complete floral overload. Where florals reigned supreme: beautiful chiffon blouses in one particular ditzy floral print were light and fluid, perfect for that ‘summer in the city’ look. The seventies influence that graced Autumn/Winter 2015 was still heavily present in Stuart Vevers’ designs, which will no doubt be a little dated come spring 2016. A worthwhile addition to the seventies procession of 2015 were the neo-Victorian, high neck, white ruffle collars with black ribbon ties- as an accessory! The versatility of this simple but effective piece is genius.
Loaded with leather
Vevers wanted to celebrate the naturalness of leather for this collection, but more often than not leather was tampered with: coloured electric blue and maroon, sometimes quilted. The blue leather skirt did not tie in well with the overall feel of the collection, and the quilted western belts sewn into skirts also looked out of place. Leather was on the whole however, well played. Natural colours were seen on many different outerwear styles: oversized suede jackets with simple collars but western undertones in a rusty brown, cropped and sleeveless leather biker jackets and reddy-brown classic biker jackets. The fitted seventies style, leather coat with short, wide lapels and tortoiseshell buttons was certainly a wardrobe must-have, but again not entirely original. The bags however, were beautiful and classic in all the rights ways- we would expect nothing less from the iconic bag brand Coach. Wonderland’s favourites were the little handbags with chain link handles in leather or zebra, and the half-moon satchels in natural colours, we especially loved the addition of the snakeskin strap.
Seductive silhouettes
Despite the seventies undertones, Vevers has to be well and truly commended for his experimentation with original silhouettes in his SS16 collection- good and bad. For the first time probably since the 2010’s, we will be seeing low-rise mini-skirts thanks to Coach. In terms of flattering the body, this cut does seems alien, but in the noughties low-rise heyday, high-waist silhouettes were firmly in the ‘80’s mom’ territory- and not in a good way. The appearance of daring waistlines is really brave, and as with all trends, our eyes grow accustomed to whatever we see in numbers- who knows what the future holds? In a less bold but undeniable successful move, Vevers moved waistlines even lower. The tiered style of dresses were of course in the gypsy, hippie style that we have come to love this year, but development from that into the drop waist worked in Coach’s favour and looked incredibly elegant in certain fabrics. The use of tiny knife pleats in the drop waist skirts and dresses was pleasing to the eye, some were offset with a band of contrasting colour at the hem, drawing attention to these otherwise silent heroes. This style worked best in the colour block styles, the white skirt with black contrast was a monochrome match made in heaven.
