What happens when Elizabeth Bennet leaves the drawing room, trades the bonnet for a really elegant fisherman’s hat and discovers a taste for the sea? At Chloé, Chemena Kamali imagines precisely that kind of rebellion: romantic, sensual, a little unruly, and entirely her own. For Spring/Summer 2027, the Chloé woman moves between the countryside and the coast, her dresses cut with the freedom of a girl who has stopped asking permission and simply wants to go out, even if it rains. There are new versions of the trench, from cropped shapes to sweeping capes, while tasselled tops swing with every step. Somewhere between a modern-day Pride and Prejudice, a sun-soaked trip to the South of France and a summer fishing trip, Elizabeth Bennet could easily become a Chloé girl — and, frankly, she’d look very good doing it.
The first look sets the mood from the get-go: a bright white sweetheart top alive with tassels paired with a matching miniskirt. It’s crisp and flirtatious, the kind of outfit that enters the room before the wearer does. From there, Chloé’s S/S 2027 collection begins its balancing act between polish and freedom. Nothing feels too precious, but in the best possible way. Romance is there, certainly, but it has been given somewhere to go.
Chemena Kamali knows Chloé from the inside. Her return is personal: “My heart has always belonged to Chloé.” And perhaps that’s the best way to understand this collection: it feels built from the things she loves, her fashion obsessions revisited and reshaped. Across fifty-four looks, it builds its visual rhythm around black and white, with thirty-three looks colour-blocked in either shade. The effect feels clean after the heavier mood of last season’s plaid prints and wool knits. It feels like opening a window in the countryside that the Chloé girl knows very well. Then colour arrives: muted pink, butter yellow, rusty orange and mustard soften the palette without turning it sugary. A fire-engine-red waterproof coat with a matching hat interrupts the sweetness with a sharp flash of colour.
The overall language is romantic bohemia with roots in the 1960s and 1970s, a recurring territory in Kamali’s work, but its real subject is freedom: a break with old rules and a woman who can move between elegance, sensuality and practicality without having to choose just one. And honestly, that has to be the woman of the future. The collection feels less like an attempt to introduce one new trend than a portrait of the things Kamali loves. Tassels. Broderie. Lingerie. Trenches. Flowers.
The opening tasselled two-piece establishes one of the collection’s signatures. Seven looks use tassels or fringe, appearing on tops, miniskirts and short trousers. The fringe is deliberately, almost comically, long, creating movement and giving even the simplest two-piece real attitude — making it extremely desirable. There’s something irresistible about clothes that move this much. You can almost hear them before seeing them.
And then there’s broderie anglaise, everywhere. If lace has dominated the fashion conversation for several seasons, this might be the new hot topic. Kamali takes it far beyond the romantic summer blouse, giving it structure across tops, bags and even boots, while broderie dresses, sheer puff-sleeved blouses, cropped lace-up tops, long skirts and babydoll shapes bring that familiar Chloé bohemia back into the picture: fresh, romantic, slightly nostalgic, somewhere between the countryside and a sunny day in the South of France. Sheer lace and broderie appear across coordinated sets, delicate but never passive. And then, almost as if to stop all that romance from floating away, comes the It item of the collection: the trench. Cape-shaped, cropped, scoop-necked, in leather or vinyl, sometimes buttoned all the way up, sometimes allowing lace to peek through. Sweeping cape coats with flipped-up funnel necks become outfits in themselves, bringing a little Parisian polish to the collection’s bohemian heart. Kamali is reinventing the trench coat, and she does it to perfection.
But then the weather changes and Chloé stops dreaming only of sunshine. Waterproof raincoats arrive with matching hoods and hats, and suddenly the girl in the broderie dress looks ready to get a little wet. The fisherman motif runs through these pieces: yellow raincoats and oversized fisherman’s hats, their brims covering half the head and hanging down like drops of water, introduce unexpected practicality into all that sensuality. The idea could easily become a costume, but Kamali keeps it tasteful: this is a Chloé girl who could step onto a fishing boat and remain the most elegant person there. Countryside and sea, romance and rain, lace and waterproofs — the contrast is what makes the collection feel alive.
That same freedom continues into the lingerie dressing, another of Kamali’s recurring obsessions. Nightshirt dresses, sheer chiffon and delicate lace retain the intimacy of lingerie but feel less bedroom-bound this time, more like clothes for a summer trip. For evening, black and white return in slim suiting and barely-there bralette tops, with huge, tiered balloon skirts that have an almost jellyfish-like volume. There are two suit looks, one white and one black, both accompanied by a beautiful silver-and-gold leaf necklace wrapping around the neck. Elsewhere, two skin-tight jumpsuits, one green and one orange, have flowers seemingly growing around the neck. Flowers, in fact, appear everywhere, but never as predictable floral prints. Three-dimensional blooms emerge from bras, dresses and jewellery. Sometimes florals for spring really can work; you just have to avoid the floral print.
The German designer seems to have opened a dictionary of necklines and decided there was no reason to choose just one. The body is revealed through shape, through a shoulder, a collarbone, a plunge or a curve, rather than through one prescribed idea of sensuality. Accessories add the final touch: oversized floral jewellery, 1970s-style sunglasses and Kamali’s signature wooden wedges bring the collection’s playful spirit to life. Minimal make-up and natural hair worn in long, slightly messy waves keep the focus on the clothes.
Chemena lets the Chloé woman dress for every kind of weather. She can wear the lace, the trench, the fisherman’s hat and the tassels, and still look completely herself. Elizabeth Bennet would approve — fisherman’s hat included.
