Philipp Plein’s U.S. expansion continues apace. With the opening of a Rodeo Drive boutique this fall, he now counts three stores in the States. Plein’s other shops are located in Miami’s Aventura Mall and New York City’s Upper East Side, and his new Pre-Fall collection seemed designed with an eye to filling those spaces. Let’s face it, he’s never going to be the guy for Madison Avenue’s stay-at-home-mommy set. His leather leggings come with deep stripes of spikes on the sides, after all. But easy-to-wear knit dresses were just as well represented as five-figure fur-trimmed and metal-studded leather motorcycle jackets, and an almost demure cabled sweater dress shared the racks with a cut-out jersey gown in the same bright shade of lilac.
Sex has been the Plein m.o. since he launched the label, but he explored an almost sweet fit-and-flare silhouette on his Spring runway. Here, a mink capelet with a panda intarsia on the back, as well as dresses with engineered prints of Transformer-type toys, while not entirely convincing, suggested he’s open to trying new methods of seduction.