PAT CROWLEY'S client is always right - or so the designer has to pretend. If there is a demand for pink when it should be black, it has to be pink ... with just a bit of black. A subtle game is played out in which both parties seem to get their way. Crowley is a diplomat. And she makes lovely clothes.
Judging by this season's mainly pale (but never pallid) collection, it looks as if she did the shapes and the clients chose the colours. Fluff, pinks and powder blues, soft greens and buttercup yellows are the very stuff of the carefree crowd, the ones with all the social engagements, it's very American.
And it is what Pat Crowley has gone for, with just the odd richer, darker aside.
But there is no compromise in fabric choice - except, of course, that they must all pack well. Travel is the great consideration. So there are uncrushable raw silks, fine wools with a gold thread, light cottons and, for evenings, the most beautiful murky coloured chiffon skirts with matching sequined tops. Understated it may be, but in its way it is completely right.
Simple shapes are given a little lift, with white pique collars and cuffs; decorative buttons are dyed to match a sugary pink boucle jacket; or there is a hidden zip on a fly fronted fitted jacket - small details adding up to make for that couture look. And, unless Pat Crowley's clothes look couture - which they are - she has failed. These do. And she has succeeded.
With travel in mind, take the powder blue boucle jacket seriously. It has great potential. Put it with a matching skirt, or a pair of ivory crepe trousers, or a silk dress, and it is already paying its way.
Evening clothes look uncontrived: soft separates - a sequined bodice with a bias cut skirt - in any length required. It has that couldn't-care-less kind of look, which is the one to aim at. It looks so easy in the hands of a wizard like Pat Crowley. But, of course, simple things are always the most artful. And Pat Crowley is very artful indeed.