Luella

Candy bright and syrupy sweet, Luella Bartley presents a collection suitable for a fanciful Royal Garden party hosted by Timothy Leary. Hyperactive Laura Ashley-esque prints mix with bold lavenders, oranges, and pinks to create a color story that makes it all about the girl in the dress weather she's walking down the street or dancing on the table at the garden party. The punk aesthetic that's been present the past few seasons is more refined this time, bending rules rather than breaking them.

Luella's girl got out of her mother's closet in this crisp offering for spring 2009. Lines are polished and colors are bold. Confidense exudes from the tops of her veiled and be-bowed hats to the soles of her wonderful Barbie shoes. Blazers (with a lot of personality) stand up against the frills and frous of bright party dresses. Hits of black, running over a lavender Mondrian-ish babydoll dress and nipping in the waist of a flowered dress remind us that continuing evolution dosen't have to preclude a solid brand.

This is the next step for the nomadic designer. her girl has been an established image from her first runway; the ladylike charm that imbues all good British designers mixed with an anarchistic sense of color and construction. With the brand so firmly in place the only place to improve in technical detail. While some awkward fabric choices were present (as seen in a strange bunching waistline on a green and lavender dress) the construction was otherwise pristine. The sharp seams and delicate detail work only serve to let the concept shine through the clearer.