Thu 23rd February
There’s something of the Hitchcock heroine to this, Bottega Veneta’s AW17 offering. Something about a cinched waist and a pitched shoulder will give you that. Not quite Grace Kelly in Rear Window, think more Kim Novak in Vertigo. A sort of coiffed femme fatale who glides about in a haze of cigarette smoke and leads men into compromising situations. It was all about this kind of amplified, rounded shoulder. Refer to first look – Eva Herzigova in this power-shouldered ribbed jumper tucked into a jodhpur and accessorised with a cracking leather glove. Which signalled this was all about the shoulder and the waist, a shape that became a loose theme – double-breasted suiting, worn with a belt to give an hourglass figure, a silhouette echoed in those almost 1940s-style tea dresses. Occasionally shoulders were further amplified with use of fur. Because how else to show you are a power lady than by expanding your form with use of luxury fabrics? The men here, as this was Bottega’s first co-ed outing, were men who looked like they could be easily led astray. Something about those sailor-boy jumpers, that folded down at the collar, or the dickie bows, suggested innocence. So too the pure white tailoring, or the ruffled shirts that poked up beneath. The Bottega lady could eat them for dinner. But we’re sure they’d taste very nice.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evams
