LONDON — Embroidered flowers — sprouting as colorful herbaceous borders of British blooms — were planted in black leather, grew over lace or nested in knits. The flora even extended to designs on lace-up boots. This vision from the Christopher Kane show looked like an instant hit for London’s High Street stores, just as his gingham checks were last season.
The show on Monday also seemed at first sight a romantic take on autumn fashion: A perfectly judged vision of tough and tender, as slim coats, a tailored blazer or a brief kilt skirt all flowered with purple irises.
Yet there is always something edgy underpinning the designer’s work. Even before he said backstage that his kickoff point was a pubescent Priscilla Presley “before Elvis got his hands on her,” the collection of silken florals exuded a darker vision. There was a contrast between the slim taut leather or shiny plastic and the exuberant growth of flower embroidery in sweet colors.
By the end of the show, the garden of earthly delights had turned into dark night, with the same dress shapes but twinkling with crystal embroideries of religious symbols.
Mr. Kane’s viewpoint was, as ever, ultracompact. No meandering weeds of ideas grow in each season’s fashion patch. But his precision is his strength. And this was a show to savor for its outward prettiness and to ponder for its interior vision.
suzy menkes, iht, nytimes.com
