ORLA KIELY AUTUMN/WINTER 2015-16 READY-TO-WEAR LONDON FASHION WEEK

Orla Kiely makes deeply cute clothes and ingeniously desirable accessories, and—best of all—she resists the temptation to overload her output with artificial meaning. Her Fall presentation was held on a stage set that resembled a mid-century university library. The models, all gray-stockinged, pottered back and forth between the shelves, sometimes giggling as they skimmed mathematics textbooks (unlikely) and sometimes staring passionately at the pages of 1969 editions of Vogue (entirely plausible).

Paying homage to Ali MacGraw in Love Story, Kiely presented a big-buttoned, double-breasted, belted camel trench; scoop-necked print dresses with detachable organza collars; cinched-waist crepe dresses; and ribbed color-block knits. A simple check—a nod to graph paper, said Kiely—came up again and again on knits and totes. And this print specialist put forward a great little design, the letters O and K sublimated into a pleasing Damier that was then expanded into a circular zipped pocket and an envelope buckled pocket on the side of a tote. “I’m lucky my initials are O.K.,” said Kiely. Uh-huh. Had my university library been populated by students dressed like this, I would have spent a lot more time in it.