With the confidence that only experience can provide, Sharon Wauchob, who started her namesake brand 24 years ago, has arrived at a place of clarity, both in terms of spring collection and business strategy. The designer, known for the lingerie details of some of her designs, will soon introduce an innerwear collection, and by the looks of the lace camisole and diamante satin bras in the lookbook, it will be be an exquisite one, informed, like everything Wauchob does, by her experience working in Paris. Her work is defined by the tension between the satisfying structure of Savile Row tailoring and the ethereal lightness of couture materials and techniques.
Like many designers, Wauchob works out her ideas in a natural colored toile, the designers’ blank page, as it were. This season, she wrote in her notes, “it felt right to continue the collection as we first experience it ourselves, but seldom execute. Without the aid or distracting optics of color and prints, we found an expression of strength in that rawness.” Examples of that quality are found in the unruly but elegant feathers that explode from the lapel of a Dietrich-worthy tuxedo; the incredible, wild textures created by the mix of hand-placed fringe and feathers on a silk slip, or over embroidered on a floral lace. Despite the luxuriousness of these embellishments, the silhouettes and mood of the collection are minimal, restrained, assured. “Stripping back” and “taking away some of the noise” as Wauchob put it on a call, was her focus when designing. She is also experimenting with new ways of selling, with plans to open a temporary retail space, which will allow her to interact directly with clients and offer bespoke services.
The shapes and the types of embellishments in Wauchob’s spring collection will be familiar to fans, but there’s nothing retro to the mood or of this relevant, woman-friendly line-up. “It’s really about the attitude… it’s not about, ‘this is the key detail’ or ‘this is the key print,’” she says. “Girls who aren’t dress girls come to me for dresses.” Asked what the lure is, Wauchob ventures the freedom from restriction that her beautifully designed but not over constructed pieces offer. There’s also the face of the awe-inspiring handwork, like hand-shredded and individually applied frills that add textural borders to a columnar slip, say.
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