Paris Fashion Week: At Celine, homespun sweetness and familiarity

Set to the heartstrings-pulling Kate Bush song, “This Woman’s Work,” the collection Phoebe Philo showed for Celine on Sunday afternoon during Paris Fashion Week was a home run, a gentle mix of fringe, flares, florals and 1970s nostalgia that will change the way women dress.

There was a homespun sweetness, and a comforting familiarity to the clothes, like the fashion equivalent of watching reruns of “The Brady Bunch” while you are sick with the flu, and remembering your mom’s bringing you chicken soup in bed.

The game-changing silhouette involved wide-leg trousers, slightly cropped, worn with a long top and the next fashionably fugly shoe, a sensible ballet pump with no-nonsense wood-block heels like something mom would wear.

Also new on the accessories front: oval leather handbags with wrist straps; white ceramic pendants in the shape of hands, or gold bells, worn on pins fastened to shirt collars, or cords around the neck; and oval gold barrettes to pull the hair back.

And there were florals, which may have been a first for Philo, who is best known for bringing minimalism back into fashion.

She opened with several knitwear looks, including a craftsy-but-cool black knit midi skirt, slit in front, with a wide panel of fuzzy fringe at the bottom, paired with a crisp navy short-sleeve blouse; a white knit tank dress with a fringy yarn skirt, and a fuchsia-purple mélange sweater and skirt with subtle fringe trim.

Next came the tailoring, which had a new softness this season. Shirts, tops, dresses and coats, some with patch pockets or contrast top stitching, had strips of fabric hugging the arms, or floating freely behind like untied apron strings. A navy short-sleeve sweater with oval cutouts over the shoulders was worn over navy flared pants, and a sleeveless tank with side portholes over wide-legged white pants.

Then came the flowers — sweet, delicate baby florals on tunics with squares of fabric buttoning the arms in, worn over wide-legged pants. There were floral dresses, one in red that was ankle length with full skirts and fluttery sleeves, and another resembling a pinafore, made from a patchwork of floral fabrics like something you would sew at home.

This collection was impressive for many reasons, first and foremost because Philo created something that was clean, simple and modern but not cold; it was warm. (And that may take a woman’s touch.) But also because the clothes felt down-to-earth, honest even, which seems unconscionable for a French fashion brand owned by one of the largest luxury conglomerates in the world. But that is Philo’s genius.

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