Jenny Packham knows a thing or two about making an entrance. Just days ago, the Princess of Wales stepped onto the black carpet at the London premiere of Digger in a sweeping purple chiffon Packham gown with a pleated bodice and diaphanous sleeves, appropriately cinematic. For spring 2027, though, Packham was thinking about what happens after the entrance, when the room loosens up and the woman in the gown starts to dance.
This was volume two of what the designer called “Disco Couture.” Resort 2027 began the story with a cast of icy screen sirens—Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface, Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, Ellen Barkin in Sea of Love—and a corresponding move towards slinkier bias cuts, liquid surfaces, and going as body-conscious as the designer has ever steered. Spring pushed those ideas out onto the dance floor, with Lauren Hutton, Lynda Carter, Debbie Harry, and Farrah Fawcett in mind.
Accordingly, these were clothes designed to move: pleats opened and closed around the body; fringe shivered. A metallic pleated gown had fan-like volume, while a champagne slip poured down the body beneath a sheath of embellishment at the neckline. Elsewhere, Packham’s familiar column silhouettes were worked in black, midnight blue, blush and silver, with signature crystals, sequins, and beading. The 20-look collection also made room for a sharper, spaghetti-strapped mini-dress and jumpsuit.
“Movement has always been fundamental to my work,” Packham said in a preview. “The construction has to allow the fabric to move beautifully while maintaining a strong, assured silhouette.” Her concern is practical as much as aesthetic, thinking about how a dress reads “on the red carpet, in the room, in photographs, and in motion.” The aim, she said, is to “amplify the woman wearing it, rather than overwhelm her.”
That distinction feels particularly pertinent as Packham negotiates an expanding clientele. Alongside her long-standing customers is, she said, “a new generation of internationally recognized women” bringing “a different energy and a different perspective on glamour. The attitude comes from the woman.”
And still the decorative instinct remained strong. One black dress was distinguished by sculptural gold cuffs inspired by Alexander Calder. “There is a fluidity and imperfection that creates interest for me,” Packham said of the artist’s influence on the moments where jewelry was absorbed into the architecture of the look.
Color also reflected Packham’s imagined long night: Peach-pinks and champagne golds for a warm opening, midnight blue and black from the darkened clubs, glacier silver that channels strange light that arrives when morning catches up with you, all amped up by Swarovski crystals and intricate embellishment.
Packham’s women may occupy very different worlds, but spring stayed true to the timeless sense of occasion.
