This is Escada’s first collectsion since the brand announced the departure of its longtime fashion director, Daniel Wingate. While a search for his successor is underway, Wingate’s fingerprints are, unsurprisingly, all over the collectsion. This season, the brand’s design team continued to explore the Hitchcockian femininity cited as inspiration for Pre-Fall 2017. That meant plenty of foldover bateau collars, smart suits, and lots of wool flannel, some with diamond print.
All that said, last April Escada hired former Calvin Klein Europe executive Iris Epple-Righi as CEO, and this season she seemed to be exerting some influence on the collectsion—perhaps particularly so, in the absence of Wingate. The career executive was cited as a reference point for the collectsion, which infused it with a refreshing dose of reality. Escada has been pushing the working-woman narrative for some time, but thoughtful details this season—such as the roomier silhouettes on cocktail dresses, the zip-away fur lining on a travel-ready parka, or the knitwear instead of silk layered under suits to combat mystifyingly freezing temperatures at the hands of a male-dominated office thermostat—show that it’s really listening to its customer. This collectsion was less about the idea of a career woman, and more about the not-always-glamorous reality.
