The Tamesis
“She always looks out for herself. Don’t you think as women we have to do that?” Alessandra Rich said of her muse in a preview. “Not for life, just for tonight,” she said, quoting Addison Rae, who inspired the collection.
The theme of freedom runs through all of Ritchie’s work. In the spring, it appeared at social events, as the “bright young men” of the roaring 20s defined it. This season, the designer looked inward, imagining a woman alone in her bedroom, trying on different clothes to express different personalities.
“Have you ever gone through your closet, tried on all the clothes, and then piled them all into a pile?” the designer asked. “But the secret is, in order to truly feel free in that moment, you have to be alone.”
Like “The Bunch,” this series has a little bit of everything. There were boudoir separates (a pair of slinky black lace dresses and a jumpsuit) and Rich’s signature tea dresses in silk, tweed and lace, only this time a few came with fringed belts like you’d see on a nightgown.
There’s also a boyfriend leather jacket, a taffeta dress that’s a little looser than usual, and a series of two-piece skirt suits in a variety of prints. The highlight is a silk Hawaiian print, which means “the shirt he could have left behind.” A collection of extremely interesting 1980s-style costume jewelry adds to the fashionable playground atmosphere.
The lookbook was shot in a seedy motel in Milan, the kind where one would bump into each other late at night on a round bed. Because it’s in Italy, the parking spaces are separated by fake Roman columns, which Ritchie found really added to the kitschy vibe of the place. This inspired a member of Ritchie’s team to take photos of the models as they moved between motel rooms. The result is a fantastic set of behind-the-scenes photos that will hopefully become fodder for the event.
