It was time for a collection like this from Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters. After seasons of struggling to balance their scrappy, homespun chic with, well, genuine chic and commercial viability, their spring collection felt like a reconciliation of those two sides of the spectrum. There was less of their signature crafty charm in the lineup, but in the end, you didn’t really miss it.
Titled “Angel,” the show was an ode to rock sirens of the Fifties, women who embody a dual sense of the fierce and vulnerable. “It’s sort of this character who’s an object of desire and obsession, or a person who’s idealized but not untouchable,” Peters said. For example, Julee Cruise, the David Lynch muse — she sang the “Twin Peaks” theme song — who Gabier and Peters hired to perform live during the show. She was a strange angel with a floating voice wearing a silver dress from the collection.
Styled with makeup inspired by PJ Harvey and hair loosely based on Lydia Lunch, the looks had retro rock inflections, in the bustier seaming on an orange coat with black buttons, and the subtle star motifs on a silver and white shirt worn with a came bouclé pencil skirt intersected with a silver stripe and star detail, but the overtone was refinement. Maybe their muse worked in an office during the day and moonlit as a chanteuse. A long khaki cotton twill jacket with workwear details worn over a zip-up track jacket and jeans skewed sporty, while a silver linen dress with peasant sleeves and a loose hourglass waist worked a dreamy artistic angle. In between were floral printed dresses with open backs and lace details at the collars and a pair of simple dresses — one yellow, one printed — with gathered sleeves and V-necks that could be professional staples. It was balanced but never bland.