There’s been plenty of chatter this season about designers giving in to populist favor over creative risk-taking. It may not move the fashion needle forward considerably, but in unpredictable times, it’s often the shrewder choice. “I’m not going to reinvent the wheel,” said Gaëlle Drevet, The Frankie Shop’s founder and creative director, after presenting the label’s fall collection for the first time. The brand has never been known for an avant-garde sensibility. Instead, the question Drevet persistently asks is: “How can we make something simple more special?”
This season that means many of The Frankie Shop’s classic menswear-inspired pieces, only updated in more structured silhouettes—a sharp-shoulder blazer with a rounded curve at the sleeve seam, for example. Rich textures appear in the form of fur (both faux and real shearling), cashmere, leather, and angora wool, layered with pops of colors such as teal, icy blue, chartreuse, and bright red. In Drevet’s words, the brand has notably “stepped up” its offering of complete wardrobe-building pieces, which includes more knitwear this time around.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a dress in this, or in most of the brand’s collections, however; Drevet doesn’t wear many herself. She designs intuitively, she said. Case in point, the number of pieces in a shade of deep forest green, including a wide faux-fur stole and a leather pencil skirt that zips up the side. “I just really loved this color,” she shrugged. Her instincts paid off; it’s a fantastic shade.
A collarless blazer in gray wool was tailored closer to the body than past iterations. It could be worn as a set with a matching midi pencil skirt for quite a ladylike look, but Drevet is confident her customer will likely offset it with something more casual. Twists came in the form of tracksuits fabricated from traditional suiting materials and insides of jacket collars with contrasting colors.
Along with the brand’s signature leather blouson jackets and outerwear offerings, more striking standouts included a mid-length alabaster coat in curly shearling and a long, buttery yellow robe coat in faux fur. Like several designers this season, Drevet repeated a few well-selling outerwear pieces from past collections, including several classic fur coats. “I don’t believe in changing things that work,” she said. In other words, give the people what they want.