Haute hippie: The ’70s are back

SUMMER lace dress suspended from thin camisole straps is paired with gladiator sandals for Chloé Spring-Summer 2015.
SUMMER lace dress suspended from thin camisole straps is paired with gladiator sandals for Chloé Spring-Summer 2015.

In keeping with the season’s easygoing spirit, Chloé’s Spring-Summer 2015 collection has a laid-back feminine charm that’s hard to resist, inspired by sexy 1970s boho chic.

 

Creative director Clare Waight Keller tells Vogue’s fashion news director Mark Holgate of the collection: “Everything is just meant to be clean and simple: strong, honest clothes that don’t get over-complicated.”

 

It was also a touching tribute; the collection was shown just a day after the house’s founder, Gaby Aghion, passed away at the age of 93. She founded Chloé in 1952, and was known to rebel against the restrictive clothing of the ’50s.

 

The collection showcased irresistible flowing silhouettes in imaginative fabrics that tell stories: patched lace into folkloric jacquard; tailoring in the daintiest lace; exaggerated gauzy volumes in sun-faded folk colors of dusty blue, terra-cotta, turquoise, ivory and mint; washed denim blue in knits; and crepe georgette dresses suspended from thin camisole straps.

 

Models strutted in the season’s to-lust-for shoes—goddess-like, barely-there gladiators with the thinnest straps. And to give the look a modern polish, Chloé introduced a new bag shape, the “Faye,” a floppy clutch bag with oversized ring, removable chain and leather handles, beautifully made in intense colors of saturated soft suede.

 

The attitude may have references to folklore, but the collection is anything but primitive. Lucky for us who live in a tropical country; these are definite looks we will be sporting 365 days of the year. Ready to be sun-kissed?

 

Timely exhibit

 

In keeping with the runway season’s influx of ’70s-inspired fashion, learn a thing or two from London’s Fashion and Textile Museum’s new exhibit, which explores the romantic spirit of the decade’s trends, and the role of an influential designer during those heady times: “Thea Porter: 1970s Bohemian Chic.”

 

The head curator of the museum, Dennis Northdruft, gives his opinion on why sexy ’70s boho chic is back. He tells Linday Baker of BBC: “It feels more real, honest and human. In the digital age, people are valuing those qualities more—they are also valuing experience and travel. And high street has reached saturation point—that’s why vintage has become so popular.”

 

Baker concludes her story: “The boho-luxe style takes the wearer perhaps to a simpler time—a place of ease, Romanticism, hedonism, liberation, and confidence. It’s a fantasy, of course, but that is part of the bohemian aesthetics’ larger-than-life power.”

 

To know more about Chloé’s latest collection, visit www.chloe.com.

 

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