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This season, fashion has largely chosen to react to the current socio political and economic chaos with a kind of peaceful protest expressed through softness and prettiness. These attributes are, of course, often found in lingerie, by which Anna October is always inspired. “My constant thinking is about the female body and femininity and how we can use clothes as liberating instruments,” she said on a walk-through. Soft power, then.
That October and her Ukraine-based team continue to keep the faith in the face of the unimaginable challenges they are facing is remarkable and laudable. Some people find solace in gardening; this season it was part of October’s inspiration. Top of mind were “life cycles” and how a garden is “blooming, then it’s dying, then new things are coming,” she explained. “I think that in times of big changes in the world, in times of cataclysms, the only way to keep sane and to keep growing as a human is to build something beautiful.”
How does October’s garden grow for spring? The signature tulip brassiere detail was back. Some of the silken, bias-cut slip dresses featured tiny floral bead embroideries as delicate as the hand painted porcelain (think Meissen) they referenced. A more personal memory of Linden blooming in May resulted in an embroidery of that flower. Several crochet dresses featured pendant blooms.
There were also a number of then/now hybrids for spring. Sometimes it feels as if October is in dialogue with Madeleine Vionnet as she refines and refines her bias cut slip dresses. “I’m constantly in the process of developing that dress,” she noted. A black and white number could be for a latter day Joan Crawford, much like the first look with what might be the season’s most sensual back, with arches inspired by the architecture in Kiev, updates that brought a Jean Harlow vibe in a manner that felt now rather than vintage.
There were playful looks as well: see a meringue-like pink bustier paired with a full skirt with a ruffle-edged dropped yoke. The final three looks spoke to a more pared-back and sophisticated aesthetic. A gold knit dress that a colleague thought fit for a Joan of Arc was knit of a yarn so fine that it resembled metal mesh. More romantic, yet at the same time somehow restrained, was an embellished cape of a nearly sheer Japanese taffeta.
Moving beyond the floaty and slippery materials she usually favors, October used jersey, which clings to the body rather than skims it as satin does, to craft a long white dress with a tank silhouette that extended down to a triangular basque waistline from which the softly gathered fabric falls. This look was an invitation to dance, to glide through the world with confidence and grace. It was mindful, body conscious, not demure—and all the better for it.
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