“It feels much more sophisticated,” said Masha Popova of the spring collection she presented this afternoon. The reason for this sudden shift in mood? “I’m already 33! It’s time to act like an adult.” The designer is hardly ancient, especially in a business where creative directors lead successful careers well into their 80s. But a healthy dose of existentialism this season saw Popova abandon the bubblegum angst of her previous collections for more of a take-charge attitude. And so her models strode through the much-improved NewGen space at 180 The Strand in grandma-ish glasses, tweed jackets, and grown-up pussy-bow blouses. “The girls are now ladies,” said Popova.
But even the most together of adults sometimes feel like teenage interlopers. A 33-year-old might purchase a pencil skirt because it seems the age-appropriate thing to do, but there will come an afternoon when she realizes the zip has been left undone since the morning. Or that her bra straps were on show during an important meeting. Or that she has perhaps been walking around the office with her dress caught in her knickers without anyone having mentioned it. Popova explored these everyday vignettes in jersey dresses with too-long straps falling around the elbows, tailored jackets with integrated capes, and half-zipped miniskirts sewn onto longer mid-length versions. “It’s all about impulsive dressing,” she said, taking inspiration from photographer Patrick Magaud’s 1984 book, Exhibition in Paris, which captured a model in various states of tongue-in-cheek deshabille. “I find it beautiful when things get stuck or don’t quite fit. It tells the story of a person’s day,” said Popova. She could have cheated these effects with styling but instead demonstrated her construction skills.
The designer said she enjoys working with denim for a similar reason—for how the worn experience reveals itself in fades and stretches. And having already proven what she can do with a pair of jeans—see those signature hip-flashing boot-cuts—Popova wanted to trick the eye into seeing them just about everywhere else. Waterproof trench coats had been put through several treatments to evoke aged denim; the surfaces of tailored trousers were scraped to reveal the grain within their underlayers; and tweed jackets had been spun from indigo cotton. Even the Adidas Superstars worn by this morning’s models—a one-off customization project with the sports giant—had been coated in different layers of bluish colors and pierced with antique brass studs. They’re not for sale, but they should be.
