Personnel changes at Filippa K mean that the spring collection started by Liisa Kessler was completed by the in-house team with input from the new creative lead, Anna Teurnell, who will also continue to run her tiny, mighty namesake label, Teurn Studios. Both brands tend toward the minimal, but by the looks of it, at Filippa K the designer is working toward a modular simplicity that builds sturdy bridges between the house’s dependable basics (such as fine gauge knits and denim) and its more fashion forward proposals.
In contrast to Teurnell’s three-year-old own line, Filippa K has a long history, having been founded in 1993 by Filippa Knutsson to offer an effortlessly cool uniform for working women like herself. (Menswear followed in 1998. The brand was early on the wellness bandwagon, launching the now shuttered Soft Sport line in 2011.) Teurnell said that the fact that Filippa K has its own DNA will allow her to “use the past to go forward.” Yet part of what made this collection compelling is how Teurnell has made things personal by referencing her own experiences with the brand, iterating on her own first Filippa K purchases, including stretch denim. See look 12, a pair of leg-lengthening jeans with a slight flare that skims the ground when worn with kitten heels and covers the foot if worn with flats, paired with an impeccable black leather blazer.
As Filippa K has always been associated with work, tailoring is key. Teurnell has a special gift for tweaking proportions, and she brought in the waist on the opening look, a women’s pantsuit, and narrowed the shoulders on men’s suiting. The team’s preference is to pair suits with soft knits and loafers. More casual styles were shown with almost-preppy button downs and collared sweaters. More daring were city shorts, but this editor’s money is on the outwear, like look 4, a nylon gabardine car coat with an embroidered logo monogram, or look 30, a citified A-line jacket with patch pockets and side snaps that allow it to be worn open, a detail Kessler found in the archive that Teurnell will continue to develop. If there was something almost Langian about the styling and the pared back set, it’s probably because Filippa K’s heyday was also the ’90s. And there is a sense that these are clothes that work for and with you. Teurnell, who said she aims to “take back this sort of attractive wearability, the elevated wardrobe, the products that you need and come back to,” didn’t originate this collection, but her mark is clearly on it, making Filippa K’s future look bright.