Fall 2018 Ready-to-Wear: Duro Olowu

CEBU, Philippines — Duro Olowu tends to populate his mood board with a host of strong, creative women. This season, Pauline Black – front woman of the two-tone ska revival band the Selecter – played the leading role in his inspiration. Fusing traditional ska rhythms with a punk edge, the music she made was a rousing response to Thatcherism in ’80s Britain and had a defiantly chic look to match.

In politically volatile times such as these, that countercultural verve feels right. Olowu is a mix master when it comes to print and color, and he set the tone for Fall with a vibrant chevron pattern that was evocative of the colorful youth movement. It lent Olowu’s signature feminine dresses and blouses a graphic beat and was a nice foil to sharply tailored striped suiting.

There was a second muse in the mix, namely Dada artist Hannah Höch. Like Black, Höch had no trouble holding her own in a male-dominated milieu. Her influence came through in the gently sculpted coats that were cut with geometric-print bell sleeves. The silhouette cut a strikingly sophisticated figure in the lineup and came in various eye-catching iterations, including a version in refined molten wool with a sleeve that was paneled with a patchwork of jacquard fabrics.

Floral motifs are usually part of the scenery in Olowu’s world, and they gained a luxe bohemian hand on velvet robe coats trimmed with fluffy Mongolian fur. The neat floral miniskirt suit was new for Olowu, worn with optic white Chelsea boots, and the look was a nice complement to the designer’s long, fluid lines. It all managed to capture the rebel yell of youth with grown-up elegance.