The most talked about designer of this season did not have a fashion show at all. She was nowhere to be seen over a month of shows in New York, London, Paris or Milan. Yet despite not having made a single coat, dress or shirt for six years, and never once posting on Instagram, Phoebe Philo was the name on everyone’s lips on every front row.
Finally, on the last weekend of Paris fashion week, Philo made a fashionably late entrance, announcing that she would make her long-awaited return on 30 October.
The industry had been on red alert since July, when a sparsely worded message on her website invited shoppers to register for a mailing list. A September release date was understood to be pencilled in. The reaction among fashion devotees to confirmation of a new era of Phoebe Philo fashion was as instant and fervent as that of Swifties hearing that new dates are being added to the Eras tour. “Hallelujah!!”, “OMG yes please take all my money” and “finally the drought is over” were among the hundreds of comments that appeared instantly online.
The clothes, which will go on sale on 30 October, are as yet a mystery. The announcement was accompanied by a montage of flashing images: black leather, white feathers, sunglasses, gold studs, graphic earrings, unmade-up faces and high-shine surfaces. The Phoebe Philo name in pillar-box red is splashed across each one, but the clothes remain mysterious for now.
Philo was the British queen of Paris fashion week for almost a decade at the French house of Céline, transforming that house into a talismanic name that represented not just what modern women wanted to wear, but how they wanted to be seen. To wear Céline during the Philo era of 2008-2017 stood for having both brains and an eye for beauty, sophistication without fuss, elegance with ease. It made shoulder-padded power dressing look clumsy and traditional glamour look old-fashioned.
The fashion industry, generally inclined to be snippy about almost everyone, worshipped Philo. Grand fashion editors unashamedly fan-girled her. And then, at the height of her powers, she announced she was leaving Céline. Ever enigmatic, she gave little explanation, other than citing her family as her priority.
Soon after news emerged on the fashion grapevine that Philo had hired a design studio and team in London and was planning a comeback. This was confirmed in July 2021, when an eponymous label was announced. LVMH, who as the owners of Céline had been Philo’s bosses in Paris, took a minority stake. In an industry with a short attention span and where speed is of the essence, it was assumed that a show date or a sneak-peek collection was imminent. But the trail then went dark for another year – until now.
Philo began her career as design assistant to her friend Stella McCartney at Chloé in 1997, directly after the pair had graduated from Central Saint Martins. They brought London energy and It-girl high jinx to the hitherto gentle house of Chloé, a formula that Philo kept alive when she took over the top role at the house five years later, McCartney having left to set up her own label.
Under Philo, Chloé became one of the fastest-growing brands in fashion, with a distinctive line of elevated boho chic ready-to-wear and a string of hit handbags.
The first sign that Philo would not play by the established rules of the industry came when she took maternity leave after the birth of her daughter, Maya, becoming the first designer at that level to do so. Soon after, she left Chloé and its gruelling Paris commute, spending four years raising her family in London before taking up the offer of Céline.
“It was good to take a break, but I love working, I love being part of a team, and I love fashion,” she told the New York Times at the time. In the same interview, she mentioned that she had considered starting her own label, but that the “clean slate” of Céline, a label that had almost no fashion profile when she came on board, offered a ready-made platform to present her own vision.
The Philo look, developed during her decade at Céline, has no easily readable signature. There are no big logos, no equivalent of the Chanel tweed jacket or the Gucci loafer, no instantly recognisable silhouette in the style of Dior’s New Look. The Philo look is a vibe. It is the generous fit of a roll-neck sweater, the floor-grazing hem of a coat. It is a palette of grey and cream and navy, proportions deftly sliced with an architect’s eye, luxuriously understated fabrics. It is centre-parted hair loosely tucked into a jacket collar, the blink and you miss it sliver of lace on a slip dress, a trouser puddling over a white trainer.
“Old Céline” – as Philo’s collections are known – was ahead of its time in elevating fashion above the trend cycle into a way of dressing that signalled lifestyle, mood and values. That the clothes still look relevant today is reflected in the prices the clothes command on resale websites. Some pieces are worth more secondhand than they were when on sale in the boutiques.
With a devoted following ready and waiting with their credit cards, a proven talent, decades of experience, mastery of an aesthetic that shows no sign of going out of style, and the deep pockets of her LVMH backers at her disposal, Philo seems to have long had everything a fashion designer could possibly need to launch her label. Why the years of delay? Little is known for sure – Philo is fiercely private and insists on secrecy in the studio – but it has been widely rumoured that the designer’s perfectionist tendencies have been at the root of it. Racks of clothes are said to have been designed, produced and then scrapped at the last moment. (“She doesn’t like it, so she’s not showing it,” a source close to Philo was reported as saying of a collection made this summer.)
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On the business side, enthusiasm is high. LVMH, proud to have a thought-leader of Philo’s calibre in their stable and, jealously guarding her as an asset, are unlikely to balk at shelling out for expenses, while the hiring of Patrik Silen from Asos as managing director points to ambition for mass direct-to-consumer retail. Earlier this year, Philo is said to have had lunch with her old friend and boss McCartney to discuss sustainability practices.
Fashion is desperate for a new release of Phoebe Philo greatest hits. But Diana Vreeland – paraphrasing Henry Ford – once said that the key was to give people not want they think they want, but what they don’t yet know that they want. Philo has long seemed to hold a near-clairvoyant power to know what fashion-loving women want before they do. On 30 October they will finally find out what is on her mind.
Phoebe Philo’s most memorable moments
Birkenstocks, spring/summer 2013
Philo’s fur-lined and bejewelled interpretation of Birkenstock’s Arizona sandal catapulted them from hospital corridors to chic cocktail parties. British Vogue described them as the “right mix of weirdo and luxe”.
The foulard shirt, spring/summer 2011
Riffing on vintage foulards, Philo sent silky shirts featuring geometric prints down the catwalk. A decade later the high street is still churning out copycat versions.
The hair-tuck trick
Backstage, Philo regularly appeared with her hair purposely tucked into her oversized roll-neck. So everyone else began tucking their hair into oversized roll-necks too.
The alphabet necklaces, autumn/winter 2017
One of the most searched-for items on resale sites. Gold-plated, they now sell for four times the original asking price.
The covetable shades
In 2015, Joan Didion even gave Philo’s chunky Petra shades her seal of approval fronting an ad campaign shot by Juergen Teller. Last year they sold for $27,000 (£22,000) at an estate sale after Didion’s death.
Stan Smiths, 2010
A 30-second appearance from Philo, taking her bow at the end of her autumn/winter 2010 show was all it took to pivot the humble Stan Smith into higher echelons. Stilettos were instantly shunned and since then Stan Smiths have become a permanent fixture on the high street.
Chloe Mac Donnell