Colour, Collars, Carven

The Carven Spring 2012 collection, shown as part of Paris fashion week, is really lovely. The evening wear looks are fresh and unexpected, the chunky shoes (though reminiscent of a lot of the flatforms around this season) give the looks an intriguing masculine edge, and the bold cut-out detailing gives the collection a sense of vitality as well as continuity and coherence.

The collection features some super-short silhouettes, which obviously look gorgeous on the models. Equally obvious, however, is the fact that my purple-white sausage legs would look infinitely less desirable in this abbreviated variety of skirt. Ditto the unmade-up faces. There are some elements of the show which do really tap into my current style preoccupations, however, and which I therefore both covet and wish to approximate in some kind of budget version.

I'm very keen on the golden / mustard tone which punctuated the second third of the collection. It's not a colour I would usually experiment with, but Carven made it look so sumptuous that I might just have to give it a go. I think that the palette in general is pretty delicious (not to mention the prints!); it manages to retain a real sense of femininity whilst also seeming bold, strong, and modern.

I also love the way that shirt collars can be seen peeping out from the necklines of dresses. I have tried this kind of look before, but always in a more winter-y way - white shirts buttoned to the neck beneath grey woollen dresses or pinafore-type numbers. Here, however, not only do the colours help to make the outfits more season-appropriate, but a number of the collars themselves are autonomous. That is, one need not wear a shirt in order to get the collar effect, but can just wear the collar separately - shirtless collars rather than collarless shirts! I think that's a genius idea for when the weather turns hotter and nobody wants to layer up.

In short, I really like the whole collection. Well done to Guillaume Henry. I want to finish off with an outfit that manages to encapsulate all of my favourite elements, and which I will have filed away in my noggin as style inspiration come spring. I love the colours (the mustard with the blue lace against the baby pink, combined with the acid bright shoes), I love the buttoned up collar, and I love the very neon librarian feel about the whole look!