Fashion Francophilia

NEW YORK, United States — Eric Rohmer made Love in the Afternoon in 1972, the final film in a series he called "Six Moral Tales" — all of them analysing relationships in a way that was very French, very talkie and hardly the likeliest inspiration for a collection from America's sweetheart Tory Burch. But she's an ardent Francophile (she's about to marry a Frenchman) and she has always loved the individuality of the women in Rohmer's film.

"It was also the first movie that was talking about street style," Burch claimed. Paris street style, perhaps. Consider an outfit like the Liberty print blouse paired with a little knit vest and lean, leggy pants, or the polo-shirt-and-suede-midi combo, or the top-stitched navy coat over a turtleneck and silk shirtwaister.

Any of those would have looked chic on the rue St Honoré in 1972. The track pants, however, were very much of this moment in Tory time. She’d lifted them from her Sport range, which “is the biggest thing for me at the moment,” she said. Burch loved the high/low contrast.

High, in case you’re wondering, was defined by the collection’s equestrian tendencies. Burch loved her pony when she was a little girl. Here, jockey silks inspired some appealing colour blocking. Trousers were a slimline variant on jodphurs. And a graphic of horses reared across crepe pyjamas and a simple silk t-shirt dress.

While she was talking about Rohmer, Burch happened to mention that she loves Fellini too. “Maybe he could be a collection,” she mused. A skirt of vibrantly coloured eelskin stripes was already pointing the way.