Despite its hue of faintest dusty pink, an oversize sweater with chiffon back tucked with haphazard precision into languid trousers doesn’t immediately telegraph a flower inspiration. Nor do slouchy pantsuits or intricately ruched jackets. Perhaps that’s because we’re programmed to expect the obvious: floral inspiration/floral patterns.
Haider Ackermann doesn’t design toward expectation. “It started with broken flowers,” he said of his spring collection with nary a blossom in sight. “I’m in a more tender phase of my private life, so I think I have more tenderness in me. So it became much more tender and much more gentle.”
The mood was indeed gentle, but not cloyingly so. Ackermann may be feeling tender but that doesn’t make his customer an ingénue. To appeal to her sophisticated tastes, he channeled his newly felt gentility into a gloriously gentle palette of those barely there pinks, along with grays, lilacs and whites. His silhouettes, though often loose-fitting and featuring unconstructed jackets or floor-sweeping robes, retained an aura of confident grandeur. Flower petals were suggested via those ruched jackets and in blouses with ruffles that spilled out from manageable layers.
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Ackermann’s clothes have always been subtly sensual. Here, he managed to incorporate a slicker sexiness without destroying the overall mood. This came in diagonally cut skirts and dresses — an off-shoulder version opened the show. As for the white plastic numbers, they had a futuristic/Eighties vibe. They also had an inherent cheese factor: They’re white plastic pants. It speaks to Ackermann’s taste level and skill that by inserting them out of context into his ultrachic lineup, even they basked in the glow of reflected elegance.