As Smith and his team did for its brother menswear collection presented back in January, here the Paul Smith womenswear proposition – for the first time in years, the British designer’s showing his women’s collection separately from the men’s – was a traveling-without-moving whistle-stop tour of wearable subcultural styles that spanned decades but was built for the immediate future.
He revealed the women’s collection with a 20-photo look book rather than filming a runway show as he did with menswear.
His Fall/Winter 2021 collection was a lineup of mannish shapes, including fluid trenches and wide-leg trousers with a 1940s edge; slim four-button suits with kick flare trousers, and topcoats galore – in tomato-colored leather, check or dusty rose wool. A bohemian vibe filtered through the collection with paisley dresses, scarves and pajama trousers, and there was a collegiate feel, too, in the form of roomy striped cardigans and skinny knit skirts.
Some pieces were direct parallels with the menswear collection, including the lovely padded mac; those cardigans; and the closing look’s distorted floral overcoat.