A desk of one’s own was Charlotte Eskildsen’s starting point for a collection that brought together the ideas of a private space and a purposeful life. Collecting images of women at their work spaces led, the designer said on a call, “to my whole inspiration about how you look, what you do, and what are you wearing when you follow your ambition and your rhythm.”
Eskildsen certainly hit her stride this season with an offering that refined ideas she’s been working on so they exude an air of confident maturity. The casting was meant to suggest a mother/daughter scenario, but it’s the former, a woman with a magnet sense of self-possession, who stole the show. There’s an interesting back story to this scenario: the designer’s daughter, a student of social science and math, just completed a graduate thesis that measured the percentage of women in leadership positions. “I was like, ‘it’s changed, it’s not that bad anymore,’” said Eskilden. “We were just so surprised that actually the numbers aren’t great yet.”
Taking matters into her own hands, the designer crafted clothes that play with different ideas of power and comfort. Bold shoulders on a crackled lamb leather jacket suggested strength. Items borrowed from corporate closets were feminized; pinstripes were cut into roomy pants and a powder gray three-piece suit became a four-piece with the addition of a short apron overskirt. Under the jacket, the vest hides its secret—a slit open, lingerie style back. Another wink-wink moment was built into a camel coat with belt loops and a pants pocket effect on the reverse.
The power of seduction was at work when a slip top was layered over a lightweight turtleneck and paired with fil coupe pants. It was also evident in airy blouses that seemed to drift over the skin, and an ivory cable knit sweater with a cut open back with bow ties. A faux fur coat cut in a bathrobe shape communicated a feeling of comfort and interiority of the sort you might experience when sitting alone with your work at your home desk, which sounds like something Virginia Woolf would very much approve of.
