Wes Gordon has been back on the road, meeting clients and showing off his spring collection for Carolina Herrera. He said it’s his favourite part of the job, second only to fitting the clothes to start with. “Our customer is looking for pieces that celebrate the moment. She wants the wow from Herrera—to live in the moment, to get dressed.”
With that in mind, Gordon kept his collection for Carolina Herrera fall/winter 2022 characteristically upbeat, injecting it with a really playful streak. To start, there were nods to Mrs. Herrera: a blouse, jacket, and coat dress, all with the sort of dramatic full sleeves she favoured. A fitted white shirt and fuchsia silk moiré ball skirt had her name all over it, too. She specialized in a sort of practical grandeur. Gordon’s reinterpretation, which followed a few looks later, combined a snug black cardigan with black cigarette pants topped by a split-front ball skirt. Meghan Markle watchers will recall a red number Gordon made for her late last year along similar lines.
Ariana DeBose, Alexandra Daddario, Sabrina Carpenter, Alisha Boe, and Faouzia lined Gordon’s front row. These are not the ladies who lunch of Herrera’s era, but millennial multi-hyphenates. Hence the preponderance of short, leggy, ’60s-style shapes, the party dresses with corseted bodices and “floating” bra cups, and the cloudbursts of plissé tulle. A strapless dress collaged from large, whimsical flowers embroidered in metallic sequins would be a charming choice for a young star’s first Oscars. For a nominee, Mrs. Herrera would endorse a strapless marigold column gown with an overskirt. She nodded and pointed enthusiastically as it glided by.
Some looks drifted off message: The Fauvist florals had exuberance but not gravitas, and a plunge-front, jet-bead-embroidered jumpsuit leaned towards excessive raciness. But the best pieces had the wow factor that Gordon says the Herrera woman is craving. At the end of the show, he brought out the patternmakers Miro Hermes and François Bouchet, who are retiring after 22 years and 19 years at the label, respectively. A lovely gesture.
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