Phoebe English continues to impress. The neophyte London-based designer is evolving her brand only incrementally, and this season, like the last, felt more exploratory than finished and whole. But the ideas English is playing with are genuinely interesting, and with this collection, you can see her larger ambitions beginning to emerge. The thing about English—the thing that makes her work surprising but that also limits her, for now—is that she builds her collections from the materials up. This season, for instance, her standout pieces featured ticking—striped upholstery fabric—densely ruched and sewn together in bands. Elsewhere, English deftly draped latex and made arresting use of her signature tulle. But her textile sense puts her in danger of a kind of myopia. Even given an aesthetic preference for easy pieces and layered silhouettes, English’s collections veer a little too close to shapelessness. More definition, some sharpness, is required to make this brand grow.
—Maya Singer
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