Home is where the heart is for Caroline Bille Brahe. The designer presented her second Caro Editions show on a raised runway in an empty office across the street from her shop. “I love the idea of being here in my neighborhood,” she said in a pre-show chat. “I take my pictures in front of my shop because it’s convenient and I like the idea that you know everybody. So for me, I love the idea that it’s here: it’s where I live, it’s where I work.” It’s Caro’s World and it’s as enchanting as Richard Scarry’s Busytown.
An orange hued check used for pieces like a coat tied with brown velvet bows instead of toggles captured the feeling of an autumn walk in the woods with leaves of all colors covering the ground. The designer festooned her favored Harris Tweeds with fantastical embroideries of harlequins, clowns and dogs, and added floppy fur collars to jackets. Waistcoats were added to tailored pantsuits, one in striped rep, which gave a dandified appearance. Ankle-bow pants were back and Caro Editions’s tweed -trimmed jeans were reworked for a sleeker look. Tweed was also applied to a one-off 66˚ North puffer coat-vest, an unexpected, and desirable, sporty touch. Going in another direction entirely was a heavenly sky-blue velvet dress with an angel blowing a trumpet on a cloud embroidered on the front. Closing the collection was a short white skirt suit for a “court house bride.”
The show had some odd cadences; it was heavy on outerwear, for example, and some of the pieces felt really spring in contrast to the fall theme; it didn’t feel merchandised, in other words, which was kind of refreshing. One thing about the runway format was that you couldn’t really take in the intricate embroideries as they sped by. It could be that alternating catwalk and presentation would be effective. But then again, Bille Brahe is playing by her own rules. “I am not trying to be anybody and I’m not trying to be anything that we are not,” she said. “It’s just what I like, it’s what my idea of looking cool is.”
