THE Nicole Farhi show this morning was impressively full of bright young things – Hayley Atwell, Irina Lazareanu, Douglas Booth, Marina Diamandis – as well as Anna Wintour making her front row debut, so the scene is very much set for a successful season for Farhi who will open her new Conduit Street store tomorrow night and set about preparing to celebrate her 30 year anniversary during 2012.
Despite moving into her fourth design decade, this French-born, London-based designer is keeping things determinedly modern: digitised floral prints appeared on mesh or canvas shorts while graphic yellow and white checks on bonded towelling tunic tops had an almost futuristic air about them.
It was sporty and energetic with buttercup yellow bursting through the pastels that have been quite prevalent in London so far this week and karate belts giving voluminous tunics with wide open, oriental necklines a more shapely advantage.
Voluminous cotton blouses over parachute silk skirts that were pulled around the hemline into triangular flags of contrasting pink and coral were somehow overcomplicated, while bright orange or yellow tops of sequin grids and white cable knits splashed with blue or pink demonstrated a refreshing experimentation with colour.
Later there were cocoon shaped coats and dresses in pale peach and orange or mustard which looked far more familiar to the Farhi woman, before white leather versions had tactile flowers stamped out of them and then emblazoned with glittering white jewels.
“I thought the prints were very pretty – Nicole Farhi’s strength is making clothes that everyone can wear,” said Alexandra Shulman after the show. “It gets a bit confusing when the Japanese shapes and origami creep in – I prefer it when she sticks to what she does best.”
With thanks to Mercedes Benz.
SEE THE NICOLE FARHI SHOW ARCHIVE