Showing a pre-fall collection after the fall runway is becoming a “thing” among European brands, although Chemena Kamali has a unique reason: she wanted her debut Chloé show last March during Fashion Week Paris was its first statement of intent, not the range was quietly shown to buyers last December with a strict no-photograph rule.
However, that pre-fall effort, which hits stores in June, speaks with the same voice, the same spirit and the same enthusiasm about the French house, synonymous with free and effortless femininity since 1952.
You can understand almost everything about today's Chloé when Kamali welcomes you into the brand's bright, modern showroom with a big smile; her long, wavy hair falling freely over her navy blue silk blouse; her wide-leg jeans falling right over her white sneakers; golden snakes coiled around a finger and wrist.
The brand comes naturally to the German-born designer, and she quickly adopted her first bag design: the Camera bag, roomy and always so gently crumpled that she's not afraid to leave it on a bistro floor, and a vegetal leather coat cognac color that she can't wait to grow old living her life. “The more you use it, the better it gets,” she enthused.
“What I Think Chloé's Wardrobe Should Be Like” pretty much sums up her approach to what she calls “the initial collection,” which recaptures the brand's reputation for blouses, pants, tailoring and outerwear with a touch of practicality and chic. , like a trench coat with a removable cape, for example.
He also returned to a classic palette: black and white representing the late '70s era, when Karl Lagerfeld designed ready-to-wear; Nude and fawn tones have long been strongly associated with the brand, along with signature details like scalloped edges on skirts and zigzag lace trim and ties on blouses.
Everything is polished, but not too polished, exalting Kamali's intuitive and natural way of dressing and designing, and her desire to offer “pieces that feel personal, things that allow you to really be yourself… without imposing anything.”
She also skillfully selected emblems from various Chloé eras and designers (horses, bananas, a pineapple) and incorporated them into the jewelry, adding just the right amount of sass. The same goes for her new Bracelet bag, a crescent-shaped leather bag that hangs from a gold ring, a remake of a Y2K design that Kamali dug up from the archives.
