It was great to see Julien Macdonald on romantic form. “I’m goin’ softer as I’m getting older,” he said with a smile backstage, post clinch with Elle Macpherson. Gone was the sexed-up, party-prowler gear of yore and, in its place, a softer femininity. The show opened with fresh promise: crisp utility jackets with matte-gold hardwear and webbing straps shrugged over sheer, milky-hued negligées and babydolls felt like a positive new direction from the King of Cling. There were, of course, a feast of beautiful, fluttering gowns – one in duck-egg blue shot through with dainty yellow flowers was particularly pretty. But by the end of this tour around the boudoir – and a very nice boudoir it was, too – one couldn’t help wonder how the show might have played out if he’d really sunk his teeth into more of the functional sporty stuff. It was as if Julien had decided that exquisite dresses, and only exquisite dresses, are the way forward, when actually he’s got so much more to give.
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