It’s become a tradition for Emilia Wickstead to cast friends in her pre-fall and resort lookbooks — and this season she invited their dogs, too. (On some of her previous outings, Wickstead has also brought along their babies and toddlers – the old adage that you should never work with children and animals is clearly not an issue.) Writer Plum Sykes is seen in a tight, burgundy swimsuit. cradling her beloved Twiglet; director Janicza Bravo poses in an emerald green knit and holds up the shiny-maned spaniel Ted; and at the end you’ll find Wickstead herself in a paisley, pajama-inspired silk suit, proudly holding her recently acquired pup Margot.
“If I said to you, ‘I shoot women with their dogs,’ that probably wouldn’t sound like the most tasteful way to campaign for my clothing and collection,” Wickstead said with a laugh. “But I liked that there was a bit of an ironic twist to it.” (And if you needed further confirmation: 2024 was the year of the Dogue, well, here you have it.)
However, it wasn’t just the cheering presence of those four-legged friends that gave Wickstead’s resort its charm. For inspiration, she turned to the work of Karen Knorr, whose trio of photobooks published in the 1980s take a sidelong look at the aesthetic features of the British class system, capturing both the seedy upper crust of their St. James gentlemen’s clubs the more bohemian environments are found in the neighborhoods of West London. Wickstead’s spin on this theme saw her take many of the classic British motifs she’s known for – crazy florals, Prince of Wales checks, chunky knits – and give them a more playful, whimsical twist. “There is a sense of nostalgia in the fabrics and the prints, but I wanted to translate that into very modern shapes and silhouettes,” she said.
Many of the otherwise understated looks – a pretty column dress in baby blue, worn by philanthropist Noella Coursaris, for example, or Sykes’ green sleeveless one – were trimmed with delicate crystal and pearl embellishments that added a bit of sparkle. A particularly rich, tactile detail was the 3D abstracted flowers die-cut into double satin, creating an unusual effect that Wickstead compares to the wrinkling of the fabric of a dress when you remove it from a box. Those hints of dazzle also served as a nod to the 1980s and to Wickstead’s memories of her mother’s wardrobe from that period. With hints of ’80s glamor mixed with tweedy English eccentricity, it was hard not to be reminded of the recent release of Rivalsthe splashy Hulu adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s racy novel from the same period, set among the wealthy living in the fictional county of Rutshire. “I obviously didn’t see it before designing this collection, but it feels appropriate in a way,” Wickstead added. “I’m in the middle of it now and I’m a bit obsessed.” If there was a real Rutshire set buying glamorous dresses next summer, you’d imagine the feeling would be mutual.