CREATING A WEARABLE WINTER’S TALE

I have to put my hands up here and admit that, before I received an invitation to her Fall/Winter 2013 Presentation, I’d never heard of Heather Lawton. But I do believe you learn a lot more by taking a chance and heading off-site during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week than by sticking only with what you know in the Tents.

So, off we went on Day One of Fashion Week, south and west, to discover someone new (to me).  And, as so often happens, I’m so glad I wandered.  The site was transformed into a kind of Winter Wonderland in the sky (with the most amazing City views). Lawton’s inspiration, it turns out, was Snow White.  But then she took it to another level.  What would a woman want to wear on a walk through the woods? And that’s what made it special.

These are truly wearable winter clothes.  Warm, cozy jackets were paired with white (though I’m still not sure about the existence of “winter white”) pants.  Asymmetrical blouses topped leather pants.  Pops of color came in the form of velvet or leather shorts over thick, black tights.  A pink leather biker jacket was a particular favorite of mine, as was an asymmetrical jacket in bright blue velvet.

There was a great mix of textures here, tweeds, wools, leathers, velvet.  It was the idea collection for winter.  But that doesn’t make it dull.  There was such an imagination in Lawton’s designs, a true sense of whimsy, which set them apart from so much of what we usually see. A white sweater was embellished in long, woolen strands.  A long skirt had flapper-like fringe all around.

Sometimes, you’re rewarded for trekking south, hard to do in the dead of winter.  But I’m so glad I did.  Heather Lawton’s is a collection I’d like to see season after season.

Photography: Anton Brookes