With her spring collection Sharon Wauchob was out to change the way we think about dressing after dark. Eveningwear is arguably the most static category of dress, often built around a Cinderella-like idea of transformation. “I think it’s not great when you’re dressing up at night and you’re totally changing your personality, because I want to keep my personality when I dress up,” the designer said.
Wauchob was speaking about identity as much as style, but of course it’s easier to visualize the latter. She made it possible for a pants and shirts kind of person, for example, to carry on in that guise in the magic hour and even after carriages turn back into pumpkins with such garments as tanks and T-shirts of the finest mesh that featured hand-rolled edges like those on foulards. There was also a sleeveless top in sheer French résille (fishnet) fringed with hand-dyed and applied beads which the designer imagines being worn with a blazer or tuxedo. “It’s almost jewelry, but it’s not,” she added.
“Almost” could in fact be the operating principle for this collection, which was built around the idea of dusk, an in-between time, an end and a beginning. Having found that her customers “are really confident showing their bodies” Wauchob played a reveal and conceal game. A caviar black slip dress edged with scallop lace was slashed to the thigh, showing built-in tap pants. Peekaboo lace was predominant throughout. There was a metallic lace, a paneled skirt made of different types of the stuff shown worn with a crisp white shirt, and a wondrous one romantically embellished with feathers. It was as weightless as a sigh.
As for tailoring, there were smart trousers with an attached cummerbund, and a parka made of palest rococo pink that scrunched into an almost bustle at the back. Wauchob, who trained in Paris, is a hands-on designer and believes in taking the time to do things right. All of her pieces are made in London, and she related that she recently spent two days working with an artisan because she wants her garments to be pleated, rather than making garments in already pleated fabric. See the silk satin crinkled pants with hand-layered sequins in the folds, and elongated skirt.
Wauchob’s method requires that sometimes the pieces need to be taken apart. “If you take any of the processes away from that, it totally changes the energy of the garment, it really does. Maintaining these things is important and it brings a bit of surprise to the customer,” she remarked. “Being quite irreverent with something that’s precious, I like doing that. I mean, it makes you nervous, but it’s quite interesting to see how far you can push it,” said this maker of clothes that are “almost couture.”
