As the world watches Emilia Wickstead dress royalty - most recently crafting a bespoke lace gown for Harriet Sperling's marriage to Peter Phillips - the London-based designer is already turning her gaze to a more intimate muse: American abstractionist Helen Frankenthaler. Wickstead's Resort 2027 collection, inspired by Frankenthaler's "soak-stain" technique, channels the same postwar optimism that reshaped not only fine art but also the foundations of modern lingerie.
In the 1950s, as Frankenthaler poured thinned paint onto raw canvas, the lingerie industry was undergoing its own quiet revolution. Foundations like Maidenform (founded in 1922) and Playtex (1932) began moving away from rigid, structural corsetry toward softer, more fluid silhouettes - echoing the very liberation Frankenthaler captured on canvas. The era's "New Look" undergarments, with their delicate lace and lighter boning, allowed women a newfound ease of movement, much like Wickstead's painterly florals on cloqué and silk shantung.
Wickstead's mood board has carried a photograph of Frankenthaler reclining on her canvas in a pencil skirt and blouse for 15 years. That image - a study in poised confidence - mirrors the quiet sensuality of mid-century lingerie: slips, chemises, and half-corsets designed to be seen but not shouted about. The designer's signature sculpted gowns remain central, but her growing separates offering - experimenting with sequins, tweeds, and '90s minimalism - hints at the same evolution that saw lingerie move from bedroom secret to fashion statement.
The collection's soft purples and blues recall the palette of a Frankenthaler masterpiece, but also the faded elegance of vintage silk negligees. Wickstead's commitment to dressing women of all ages and bodies - 75 percent of her business comes from American trunk shows - reflects a truth the lingerie world has long known: true allure lies in fit, fabric, and the confidence they inspire.
Originally reported by WWD