If Sara Phillips’ summer collection was a sartorial analogy of the country girl going to the big smoke, then winter’s collection is more like, “you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl”. Perhaps the mark of a good designer is the element of surprise. We’ve been following Sara long enough to have an inkling of what to expect from the designer, and yet it nearly always seems to feel like we’ve been thrown a curveball. Oh, but a good one. Each season is essentially the same aesthetic as her very first collection. A push here, a tweak there to silhouettes or fabrics or finishings, and presto! Another anticipated season.
But there’s something recurring with winter’s Unbridled. The curveball this season: familiarity. Winter’s ideas are built upon the western theme that had everyone talking post-RAFW. It’s very rare to see Sara create two collections that are at heart are so alike. We guess the success of summer simply fed the creative juices. Maybe there’s more of a story to tell. Summer of course had the pastel, the art deco, the pleats, the skyscraper prints. Winter shows collages of floral, lace and plaid, painted rich with colour. Plum reds, prussian blues and pansy purples, alongside winter’s usual cosy choices of grey, navy and black.
The western is a well-worn theme. It could be easy to become a cliché, but Sara stops far short of parody. There’s a lot of cool-girl basics, like the leather cape, the skivvy dress and the riding jeans. Except there is also a simple pretty; hand-beading on blouses, georgette overlays on dresses, the soft bias of a skirt. Where Sara succeeds is in the balance between practical and pretty, attitude with sensibility. It is so easy to go west with clothes as great as these.
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