Minutes after Stella McCartney took her bow, there she was again, squeezing through the crowd of guests exiting the Opera, giggling to herself in mock embarrassment. She couldn't find her way backstage! Other designers would have waited it out or cowered at losing 'face'. Not Stella. She is a natural, at ease and so charming it felt rather lovely for her to be amongst the, mainly, women who minutes earlier were compiling mental shopping lists for their next season wardrobe. Funny incident aside, that effortlessness shone through the collection itself.
She may have missed showing on International Women's Day by a few hours but she did show on a grey Monday morning the kind of clothes women everywhere would love to have on such a day. Blanket-like wool coats to wrap yourself in and an interesting one shouldered ribbed tunic of a thing to throw over, say, a swooshy handkerchief skirt or a soft knit dress. Pull the thing off and you're ready for the evening ahead! Trousers had a little kick flare and paper-bag high waists with shirts whereas the one-shoulder story continued onto the dresses; tweed and wool or gold brocade collages, belted at the waist and stopping just below the knee as well as a great grey jumpsuit. We've seen a few of those this season but this one you could actually wear. We've seen a lot of big shaggy fur coats too and Stella's three ‘Fur Free Fur’ statements, as shaggy and long-haired as they come, in ivory and black, were a mike-drop type of deal. Stella out - or almost!
