After several seasons of loading up their looks with layers, colors and textures, designers David Neville and Marcus Wainwright wanted to give the Rag & Bone collection a make-under. They stripped down the styling, understated the makeup, benched the supermodels and put the focus on the clothes and fabrics. “Everyone expects you to do blazers and layering,” said Wainwright. “I said, f–k it. I’m going to try to do something completely different.” As a runway statement, mission accomplished — it was a deviation from their recent runways and a fresh, clean perspective on the house standards of tailoring and sport. Blazers and anoraks were cut away from the body in pure lines and styled with tiny shorts or no pants at all. Undone belts and straps emphasized the easier, looser spirit of the show. The palette was neutral, indigo, navy, white and soft green.
The thing is, at retail, Rag & Bone is a whole lot of blazers and denim, basic T-shirts and such. The natural fabrics — mostly cotton — and simplicity of the runway were beautiful elevations of the core product. But it was hard to see how they would infuse excitement into the commercial offering, which is what the runway is supposed to do. If this means that more show pieces, like the sweatshirt dresses in ivory and white terry — long, loose and improbably sexy — will make it to the stores, then bravo.