Frances Howie is building a foundation for a solid business at Fforme by applying time-tested techniques, such as panel construction and bias cutting, to designs that are fab, but also friendly and forgiving.
At the base of Howie’s strength and confidence is a sense of continuum. “If you only look to the past and to history, you will find all the answers for how to go forward,” the designer said on a walk through of the 2027 resort collection. Inspired by Madame Grès, Howie returned to a fabric she developed that’s as gossamer as nylon stockings but strong. She used it to create cling dresses and tops with surface interest through ruching. Pre-seasons, she noted, are a way to build out ideas first introduced in previous shows. The super luxe reversible shearlings coats from fall returned in a slightly simpler form, and the feathers of a few seasons ago were applied in a judiciously edited way.
The talking heads on social media often liken Howie’s type of minimalism to that of Mr. Calvin Klein. A bateau-neck top and dress, shown in both leather and fabric, do have a streamlined CBK circa 1995 sort of elegance. This is not in any way to suggest they are derivative, but only to emphasize that Howie, who worked side-by-side with Alber Elbaz, understands the kind of simple elegance many women want.
Explaining her approach to design, Howie recounted a lesson she absorbed at Central St Martins. “You’d go into [Louise Wilson’s] office and it was like a cloud of smoke; it was like a movie, like an image from a movie. She’d be sitting behind this huge desk and she had these books on either side, and then behind her she had this wall which was covered with notes that people had sent her. I remember the first time I ever went in she had this post on the back wall that said something like, ‘I just want a dress that makes me look good.’ … I don’t even know who the quote was from, [but] I looked at it and I thought, that is, actually the heart and soul of what we do.” Now you know what gives Fforme its good form.
