6 March 2026 |
“It started with a feeling, and it was a reflection of what’s going on,” said Chloé designer Chemena Kamali of her free spirited, folksy collection that was packed with traditional hand craft.
The specific feelings she keyed into? Freedom, and a sense of shared humanity. On her moodboard were images that captured free-spirited, outdoorsy playfulness and uninhibited joy, from Elaine Constantine’s colour-saturated optimism, to Bob Fitch, who documented hippie culture and values.
Kamali wanted something very human which led her to research traditional costumes from different Northern European countries. “What I loved so much about is you feel how much devotion and effort and time and the human hand was going into those pieces,” she said backstage. “You could feel the irregularities human touch when things were handmade and I wanted to capture that spirit for today.”
She poured an exceptional amount of hand-work into the collection filling it with charming Tyrollean hand-knits, hand-embroidered blouses and hand-painted jewellery. “You can feel it if a piece has received a lot of attention and human effort and love,” said the designer. The big flounced mousseline skirts that frothed underneath broad shouldered, yolked jackets were made with 25 metres of fabric whilst mousseline pinafores and yolked maxi dresses used 35 metres. Her atelier tucked and layered and flounced the fabric to create light but exceptional trapeze-line volumes. Elsewhere, floral prairie skirts were lightly quilted, blanket coats came with lavish fringing, capes and oversized parkas were worn over swashbuckling thigh boots.
She was careful not to take the folkloric look literally, channeling that breezy, Chloé girl spirit into every piece. “For me folk means shared community, community spirit, togetherness, empathy, passing down things through generations, ritual, a certain spirituality as well. These things ground us and connect us. I was really drawn to it because I feel like it’s something that I miss at the moment.”
Photography courtesy of Chloé.
