“I really love this photo,” Emilia Wickstead said while leafing through the lookbook for her pre-fall collection, pausing on an image of a trio of women staring forcefully outwards, wearing a set of knee-length dresses in various shades of power blue. “I just love a girl gang.” It’s true: Wickstead’s collections often start with a certain milieu of women—intellectuals in 1930s Paris, Hitchcock blondes, even the circle of creative women she’s surrounded by across London and New York—then develop as she folds their sartorial codes into her own world of precisely cut gowns and tailoring.
Wickstead did have a specific reference this season—namely, Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse and the 1958 film adaptation starring a young Jean Seberg—but it was also a little inspired by the fact that Wickstead’s daughter recently turned 13 and made her the mother of a teenager for the first time. “I wanted the spirit of it to be about these youthful, playful, selfish, raging, fascinating teenagers—these young women finding themselves and figuring out how to present themselves to the world.”
There was a sprightly feel to the collection’s fresh palette of icy blue, butter yellow, and crimson. It also came through in the touches of whimsy, like in the tequila sunrise stripes inspired by 1950s swimsuits and brands like Sportsgirl and Esprit the designer was obsessed with as a teenager, and a fanciful illustrated print of sailboats bobbing over waves. Of course, there were plenty of more grown-up riffs on these motifs too: floral jacquards inspired by vintage tablecloths and curtains, here reinterpreted as a shimmering pattern on skirts and column dresses, and a handful of looks featuring lace bonded and sandwiched to the top half of a dress then left detached at the bottom. Especially lovely were a series of dresses featuring lengths of fabric extending from the bust or waistband, designed to be thrown over the opposite shoulder like the kind of shawl Deborah Kerr wore as the young woman’s stepmother in Bonjour Tristesse.
All of this was set against the backdrop of a fishmonger’s on west London’s Golborne Road: a wink to Bonjour Tristesse’s south of France setting, yes, but also a playful backdrop to showcase just how versatile Wickstead’s designs can be. (The styling also helped on that front, with breezy cotton day dresses layered over striped knit tops, and cardigans buttoned like shawls across the models’ shoulders for an additional nonchalant touch.) “I wanted to make some looks you can chuck in your suitcase, that felt charming and easy,” Wickstead said of a handful of dresses made from a deliberately pre-creased silk. “That kind of youthful, ‘I just threw this thing on’ approach.” Since launching her brand in 2008, Wickstead’s clientele has grown up alongside her—now, she’s excited to outfit their teenage daughters too.
