Naked dressing isn’t a trend for the Ester Manas woman, who embraces her curves and shows them off in one of the brand’s signature sheer dresses. But what would she do in winter?
This season Belgian design duo Ester Manas and new husband Balthazar Delepierre offered an answer.
Short puffer jackets, truncated bombers, a sleek zip-front moto coat and a sunny yellow chubby were all in the lineup. There were trenches, too, in traditional khaki and a roughed-up leather version cinched tightly at the waist.
They were thinking of covering up a bit. Customers were clamoring for Ester outerwear, said Delepierre, and they took it as a design challenge to experiment with new shapes. The brand also worked with higher quality fabrics this season, as evidenced in textures with more heft.
“We were thinking of the woman who wants to wear Ester Manas, but maybe in a safer way,” said Delepierre. The brand has consistently leaned into its lingerie roots with underwear-as-outerwear and see-through dresses. “But what if you are not that fierce? We also wanted to address that.”
Manas added that while prior collections focused on evening and party wear, this one was taking the woman through her day.
Still the design duo — now husband-and-wife, who took a season off after tying the knot in September — brought back their signature sheer ruched pieces in full force, based loosely this season on the idea of the French cancan girl with her flipping, twirling skirts. The ruching was also used on handbags, scrunchies and scarves bouncing with ruffles.
Elsewhere they embraced the pantyhose-as-pants trend with a front-to-back flounce brief for ever-so-slightly fuller coverage. Sheer looks were balanced by body-con in thick ribbed knit dresses and pencil skirts, which kept their edge featuring hip slashes and keyhole cutouts.
For the Manas woman, safe doesn’t mean boring. The designers confidently delivered a new dimension while staying true to their codes.
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