Columns on fashion, culture and ideas

All posts in In the Cut

In the Cut is a column written by Harriet Walker and illustrated by Zoë Taylor, uncovering the key trends of the season

  • McQ A/W12

    In the Cut | Knitwear

    If British designers spun a yarn or two for autumn/winter 2012 that only serves to reinforce the fact that wool is part of the weave and weft of our heritage...

  • Louis Vuitton S/S12

    In the Cut | Hyperfeminine Pastels

    What better antidote to all the deep, dark sexiness of autumn 2011 than a pale and pastel palette cleanser for the summer months?...

  • Dolce & Gabbana S/S12

    In the Cut | Bare Midriffs

    In times of financial woe, so the adage goes, there's a lot more flesh on show. Usually this is with regard to higher hemlines, but for spring 2012 it was midriffs that designers denuded, rather than legs...

  • Giles Deacon A/W11 and Louis Vuitton A/W11

    In the Cut | Collars

    The presence of collars, or indeed lack thereof, is often enough to establish the mood or feel of an entire season. So integral to sartorialism are they that a ‘workforce colourwheel’ was coined in the early 20thcentury...

  • Alexander Wang A/W12

    In the Cut | Puffa Jackets

    In general, designers were not scared of turning up the volume for autumn 2012. At Comme des Garcons, Rei Kawakubo fielded outsized separates that looked as if they had been flat-cut out for a dress-me doll twice as big as the models in...

  • Christophe Lemaire at Hermès A/W12

    In the Cut | Sports Luxe

    When designers unveil their collections, they try to tap into what we’ll be interested in six months before we know ourselves. And for autumn, they predicted that the mood of the moment would take inspiration from the biggest event of the...

  • Prada S/S12

    In the Cut | Appliqué Florals

    Designers' use of appliqué florals for spring very much mirrors their mindset for the season. Nothing can be too saccharine, too feminine, too girlish. No surface can be left unadorned. Should a plane of a garment seem too empty, the...

  • Fendi S/S12

    In the Cut | Holes

    It’s easy enough to pick holes in some designers’ collections, but what about when they choose to put them there? While many have made a name for characteristically ripped, holey and gaping threads, there was a trend for spring/summer 2012...

  • Céline S/S12

    In the Cut | The Hourglass Updated

    Much has been made of the return to a curvier silhouette in recent seasons – is it down to Miuccia Prada? Or do we have TV series Mad Men to thank? Or is it simply that these severe times call for a voluptuousness of aspect and a touch of...

  • Prada S/S12

    In the Cut | Pleats

    The spring/summer 2012 collections were obsessed with a sort of rigid fluidity, or softness made structural, in keeping with the slightly uptight romantic aesthetic that many designers leaned toward. This was not a nostalgic tick, but an...

  • Prada

    In the Cut | Snakeskin

    Nothing says ‘exotic’ like the skin of an animal you don’t even recognise. There were fur and reptile hides aplenty in the autumn collections, but many designers this season have been playing snake-charmer. Or is it the other way round?...

  • Balenciaga A/W11

    In the Cut | Knit

    Not content with pioneering sophisticated and futuristic technofashions this season, designers have also taken that pioneer spirit and interpreted it in a rather more literal way, using homely knits to spin a yarn or two about the mores of...