All posts in In the Cut

In the Cut is a column written by Harriet Walker and illustrated by Zoë Taylor, uncovering the hidden meanings behind the season’s collections

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • Chloé and Maison Martin Margiela

    In the Cut | Pre-fall Collections: Sleeves

    When designers launched their pre-fall collections this season, they presented plenty of mixed media but no mixed messages. Pre-collections are the way to...

  • Prada A/W11

    In the Cut | Trompe L'oeil

    When is a cardigan not a cardigan? When it’s a safari jacket, of course! We’ll come back to that later, but suffice it to say designers have got tricksy for...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • Dolce & Gabbana A/W11

    In the Cut | Gold

    In fashion at least, all that glitters is not necessarily gold. With last season’s bedazzling catwalks strewn with vivid neon and pantone brights, Seventies...

  • Jil Sander A/W11

    In the Cut | Flowers

    In winter, fashion tends to hibernate. Colours curl up for the duration, brights go to sleep in the airing cupboard, and florals curl up their tendrils and...

  • Givenchy, S/S11

    In the Cut | Cut-outs

    There’s only one thing more alluring than the unknown, and that’s the almost known. That delicious temptation afforded by the sight or touch of something half...

  • Prada, S/S11

    In the Cut | Colour

    'Colour' is a trend to strike fear into anyone's heart. It's so nebulous, for a start, so wide-ranging and unending. Where are our preferred directives toward...