During a preview, Phillip Lim said he always sees the pre-fall season with a “back-to-school” mentality.
This season he took his colloquial idea of the uniform and unraveled, reworked and deconstructed it, with redefined ease in mind. The idea is one he’s been consistent with over the last few years, with downtown edge always kept in mind. For pre-fall, this meant taking a classic double-breasted blazer, undoing the overlap, lopping off the sleeves, adding a blouson back and crafting it in a technical compact stretch viscose. The “safari-ish” vest with military codes was paired with a slouched “almost a lieutenant” shape, trousers with front-facing slits and new downtown Oxfords with metal grates peeking out from the sole.
He continued the idea by pairing a relaxed beige blazer with long tailored short and Oxford shirt with ric-rac stitch — something Lim said he wore versions of in high school that never escaped him. The exploration of de- and reconstructing extended into intriguing denim — now more of a Lim signature. For pre-fall, he took prior collections’ washed black and blue trucker jackets, chopped them in half and attached them to the bottom of oversize blazers.
Also tapping into his archive, Lim whipped his recent lace-trimmed slipdressing into double-layer cashmere dresses — adorable in baby pink — while pairing new clear raindrop embellishments on liquid satin layers or utility jackets with school-boy lightweight khakis and cargos.
Lim also said he was “slightly fixated with sets” this season, which came in the form of pajama-esque dressing in dark blue with ric-rac accents; blurred florals, as seen on easy tops with asymmetric skirts or pants, and collaged grainy graphic prints with passementerie details and circular sleeves. There were also thick textured stitch knits in lemon lime and golden black — paired with new sleek leather jackets and sportif anoraks, suede boots and heeled ballerinas, the line upheld his knack for the push-pull of femininity and toughness.
