AT ITS first catwalk show in more than five years, BT2 presented its spring/summer collections yesterday in the Little Museum of Dublin on St Stephen’s Green. The event, according to Stephen Sealey, managing director of Brown Thomas, was to underline the repositioning of the store at a wider age group and to highlight its new international brands.
The event also marked the European retail debut of Karl by Karl Lagerfeld, the Chanel designer’s new signature collection launched recently in Paris and on net-a-porter which will go on sale in BT2 the first week in March. A resolutely rock ’n’ roll collection in monochrome with an ironic twist, it is mainly targeted at women in their early 20s. Typical of the line-up were silvery hot pants and leather jackets, metallic skirts, black sequined dresses and two-tone shirts at prices from €60-€300.
Apart from this, the store has broadened the reach of its labels to appeal to a wider age bracket with brands such as Cos from Sweden a particular success for its affordable modernism and simplicity, along with Maje, Sandro and The Kooples, all from France.
Yesterday’s line-up of nearly 100 outfits offered relaxed casual dressing in various guises with a focus on jeans, from Victoria Beckham’s pale skintight denims to those of The Kooples in red, worn with silk shirts and short black jackets.
Shorts were everywhere – in polka dot silks, tweeds, denim and chevron prints, with a range of loose and sporty tunic tops or off-the-shoulder knits in the new season’s bright colours such as royal blue, orange and coral.
Many from the French labels were shown with silk shirts and tailored jackets for a more formal urban look.
Dresses, with few exceptions, were flirty and short enough to be worn like tops in landscape, graphic and chain prints, one of the best from the Italian MSGM in black, brown and white lace edged with neon.