Céline Spring 2012 Review
Photos: Imaxtree
Looks from the Céline Spring 2012 collection
Show: Céline
Accessories: Heavy platform-soled high-heeled shoes with ankle-straps, strapped slouch and envelope bags and small clutches, wide, wide belts.
Overall Takeaway: A bit of ruffle tumble—Céline seen through new eyes.
Mean, lean, clean. There's a reason they all rhyme with Céline (and never forget that wee oui accent). Phoebe Philo's design talent is stripping fashion down in order to build it back up. She removes the fuss and frills, and creates streamlined clothes that scream modernity.
For Spring '12 however, Philo decided she'd quite like some of those frills. She cut them sharp and short, ruffling the basques of jackets and the backs of shirts, knotted them at the waist with a wide waist-cinching belt. That had a mood of Christian Dior to it—could Philo be making a pointed comment about fashion's breathless will he/won't she merry-go-round of label hirings and firings? That would make great headlines, but it's doubtful.
What Philo was evidently thinking about was moving on from the strict linear silhouettes she's established as Céline standards, and on to something softer (just) and more feminine (definitely). Alongside the ruffles, there were soft pleats breaking the line of slender skirts and in place of last season's skinny pants, wide fluid trousers cropped at the ankles. As for the always covetable Céline shoe of the season? The platform is once again back, ankle-strapped, hefty and already on must-have lists (ours at least).
SEE THE SPRING 2012 RUNWAY COLLECTIONS
