As usual this season Alena Akhmadullina found inspiration in Russian fairy tales, specifically the story “Fox and Cat.” This resulted in plenty of literal fox and cat embroidery, which often felt too busy and even childish, like the image of a fox wearing a dress stamped on a sweatshirt, or the fox face complete with a 3-D bow emblazoned in the center of a dress. The better animal-themed pieces were more pared back, such as a slouchy pale olive cat-print pajama set that could be worn as separates.
Akhmadullina’s tailoring looked strong, especially a super-soft chocolate belted leather coat with an exaggerated pointed collar and a sleek paperbag waist leather skirt in the same hue. Neither of those pieces required anything extra to make a statement, and they certainly had the most staying power of any pieces in the collection.
