“I felt like everything was very restricted, and that's what the brand is anyway, but also, in the end it wasn't leaving much room for joy,” Brandon Maxwell said during a preview of his resort collection. The luxury designer was referring to his previous beautiful and controlled collections, which he designed while overcoming his personal losses. When approaching his resort line, he wanted to bring elements of optimism, which he did forcefully while balancing sobriety between the brand's elegant and timeless codes.
Aside from a select number of her simple special occasion dresses (a baby yellow dress from “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”), most of the collection leaned toward daywear. A nod to its growing direct-to-consumer business, it aims to offer customers more options for everyday wardrobe, with fun touches and intriguing textures.
The collection opened with a black four-pocket jacket (also in a cool blue acid-wash denim print) with small hand-hammered “rage” brass buttons, cinched with a hand-molded heart-shaped belt buckle and plated with 18-karat gold. There were simple summer dresses, including an elegant tunic, in white silk (that looked like cotton) with small polka dots, and a strong new selection of 100 percent recycled cashmere fabrics designed with Ryan Roche.
“I think that's what has made the brand work, in its austerity is that there is joy infused into it, and fun, whimsy and a little bit not so much, 'on the nose,'” Maxwell said, highlighting the countless developments of fabrics from the collection. He felt especially good this season, as did the nods to his Texan roots.
A selection of organza and lace fashions with Swarovski crystal details, such as a linen-cotton acid-wash check-denim hybrid shirt atop a crystallized skirt with matching sheer hem, exemplified the idea. The same goes for a lightweight gold laminated silk coat, and for overprinted and embossed snakeskin prints and deep reddish-brown crinkled leather (which started out as a cotton that was lacquered and patinated over time) on leg jeans. straight and elegant jackets.
“What I tried to give in the beginning was very simplistic, beautiful fabrication and I tried to mold the clothes into shapes and forms that were very special. What I've tried to do now is do the same through fabrications in more democratic and wearable silhouettes,” Maxwell said.
Their resort collection nicely rounded out this approach with plenty of eye-catching looks for day and night.
