“You collect things, you buy things, you create your wardrobe throughout time,” said Chemena Kamali from the spacious and serene Chloé showroom. “The thing is, whenever you need or are looking for something specific, you don’t find it, because it doesn’t work like that.” Ah yes, that all-too-familiar dilemma…
This was a welcome collection preamble—relatable, more real talk than platitudes—which tracked with all that Kamali has cultivated at Chloé since her debut last year. Here, she was presenting pre-fall; and the brand’s website is already offering some of the lighter pieces and new Heritage bag (see the large horse medallion logo) alongside lookbook photos that have the feel of a portrait series, especially since they feature such talents as Tish Weinstock, Petra Collins and Ever Anderson (daughter of Milla Jovovich and Paul W. S. Anderson). Did they get to choose their looks, each kind of intimate and layered? “I’m always so interested to see what these different characters gravitate towards, how they take these pieces and make them theirs,” Kamali said. Translation: intuitive rather than imposed.
Consider the reinterpreted lace dresses and lingerie ensembles—Kamali now has these on lock—in saturated pastels with delicate incrustations, ruffles et al. Veering away from precious, they were topped with statement outerwear, at once fresh and lived-in, whether a satiny bomber, a great blue-green leather car coat with aged edges, or the folkloric maxi coat accented with purple embroidery. Worn with multi-strap Mary Janes or “kinky” high, square-toe boots, plus jewelry that riffed on decades of decorative styles, and the outcome was a kind of coquettish, eclectic sophisticate. This composite persona has desirability and range—attracting the girls who are discovering Chloé for the first time and the women who want new versions of it.
Confirming that Kamali doesn’t only do flou, the season’s variety of jackets delivered, whether the cropped tapestry shape with its bourgeois codes or the double-breasted check blazer that she tried on to illustrate its sartorial but not suit-y silhouette. And since we already know from the fall runway show that Chloé is leaning into shearling in a big way, the pre-fall coats—including one trimmed in punkish turquoise—act like the amuse bouche, a chance to get in early on the trend. But let’s revert back to the wise words of Kamali, who has created these pieces for the long term. “Sometimes you have things that you love for a certain time, but then you don’t wear it for a long time and then you pull it back out again.”