Listen to the audio version of the article
At 4.05pm, the official email – after registering on the site: phoebephilo.com is now open. The exhausting wait, which lasted months from the registration of the domain, and years from the separation between Philo and Céline, which left hordes of Philophiles dismayed and heartbroken in 2018, is finally over. The followers of the cult of Phoebe, of her intelligent way of creating an aesthetic in which women recognize themselves, with that unique touch in capturing the elusive, elusive coolness that everyone aspires to and which few know what it is, have something to rejoice about: Philo picks up exactly where he left off, speeding up the rawness, adding a certain rough cheekiness. On the label, discreet as ever, there is now her name, and the operation was born with the partial support of LVMH.
Produced in small quantities – deliberately lower than demand – and released in periodic drops exclusively through the site – this is the A1 edit – the collection has no season and promotes an idea of permanence. In this sense, it is responsible, and presents a variety of styles, through clothing and accessories including sunglasses and jewelry, suitable for different body types and occasions. Everything adds up, but the sense of urgency that Philo has accustomed us to is largely absent.
Remaking herself, even in the no-frills frontality of her photographic style – however no longer working with Juergen Teller despite aping him – Phoebe Philo is not too different from the many imitators – it is useless to name names, they sit at every height of the fashion spectrum – who in these years have tried to fill the void she left. Equally seen is the taste for the pastiche of many things, with unexpected openings, such as certain silhouettes that recall the skin of Claude Montana, and a powerful physicality that pays homage to the stiletto-clad bodybuilder Lisa Lyon, who recently passed away.
It is a collage that knows a lot about this confused moment, and which in this sense is a caveat even for a creator of this caliber: you cannot do everything alone, closing yourself in your own world. It is not surprising that the first piece to go sold out is the only truly powerful one: a silver necklace that reads the word MUM, vindication of a condition, motherhood, that Philo has put before everything, even his career, and which is detonating in such an abstractly muscular fashion context.