The spectacular Lancaster ballroom at the Savoy Hotel was a fitting setting for Maria Grachvogel’s Spring/Summer 2012 show, which was a lesson in understated elegance. Fluid silk dresses, tunics and wide-legged trousers that rippled around the models’ bodies had a classical feel, while a print which appeared on tops and dresses in a variety of colourways resembled something out of a botanical textbook, blown up and rendered abstract with watery swirls. This slightly subversive print kept things feeling just a little edgy, while simple shifts in a colour palette of nude, grungy lime green, and dazzling white felt like (very glamorous) wardrobe staples.
There was a slightly sporty feel to pieces like a cap-sleeved long T-shirt dress – albeit one in zingy orange silk and a relaxed luxury to slouchy watercolour print blouses tucked into Capri pants. Asymmetric sleeves on flowing dresses exposed shoulders – the erogenous zone of next season, and skirts skimmed the knee demurely.
You could imagine these beautiful clothes fitting very nicely into the wardrobe of a fabulous jet-setting woman who spends a lot of time on yachts - for those of us without the A-list budget, we can be inspired by the clever mix of colours and prints and the subtly chic, feminine silhouette which managed to be sexy without ever revealing too much skin.
New York Fashion Week: Front RowA-Z of Autumn/Winter 2011
Fashion Week 2011
