Temperley London, Fall Show 2007

“Beauty in exile,” said Alice Temperley before her show. “It’s all about the Russian emigration to Paris after the Revolution.”

An enchanted forest backdrop and dramatic music were the setting for Alice Temperley’s fall 2007 show, a move away from the bohemian exploit she is typically know for to the darker, more serious undertaking that involved various renditions of “le smoking,” inlayed lace and nipped waists. Ms. Temperley was out to capture Paris of the early 1900s, when the Russians arrived in all their sophistication, blending a little Art Nouveau with all the noble opulence that linked France to Russia and Russia to France in the first place.

Luckily, the translation wasn’t too literal. Ms. Temperley kept things modern by reversing gender roles and put her models in an assortment of “tuxedos,” including pant suits, dresses, coats and even a gown. She even resorted to dressing her regal Russes in “cropped court trousers,” as her program described, which is just a fancy way of describing bloomers. Ms. Temperley further updated her early 20th century look by shortening the hems of many dresses and skirts to Edie Sedgewick heights and accentuated waists with the same sort of chunky belts she introduced last season. Heavy black cuffs and bangles from Erickson Beamon and a few hats from Patricia Underwood also helped add a little sass to the prevailing sophistication. 

As always, there was a crop of gorgeous knit dresses, this time in a “butterfly” motif that included a mix of jewel tones like amethyst, sapphire, deep amber and shimmering gold. They looked as rich as the Russian society they were modeled after once was.