Following the departure of creative director Gabrielle Greiss, Sonia Rykiel and her daughter Nathalie are once again alone at the helm. Perhaps inevitably, the Rykiels chose not to push boundaries for Resort but to focus on the house's DNA. That means knitwear, of course, done here with a younger and more overtly sexy client in mind. A striped dress, for example, had a flirty cutout back, and there were floral pants to pair with boyish blazers. Smocked dresses had a vaguely seventies vibe, while crystal-strewn knit dresses mirrored the embellishment on Rykiel's popular Domino bag. The season's slogan read garçon manqué—tomboy—inspired by Madame Rykiel's tree-climbing youth. —Laird Borrelli-Persson
Moschino Cheap & Chic's Resort collection was a riot of print, color, and pattern all competing for attention. A pair of graphic black and white dresses cut through the noise, as did a rickrack-trimmed trench and a pretty floral print that was whipped up into appealing separates. What held this busy collection (mostly) together was a sunny sense of fun. —Laird Borrelli-Persson
Bucking trends, Tina Lutz and Marcia Patmos went all-out for Resort, showing their first ever full collection (i.e., not just the knits they're known for). This is a big step for a small brand, and it was executed with confidence and clarity. Now the customer who falls for a cashmere cardigan with chain details at the neckline, a featherweight pullover, or a cashmere robe coat with overlock detailing won't have to search elsewhere for just the right legging (Lutz & Patmos' are thick and tailored), skirt, or harem pant. Also new this season was the mixing of wovens and knits—done especially well on a silk-front tank. The duo even threw in some accessories, including finely woven scarves and beaded collars and belts.
Lutz & Patmos' latest guest collaboration—with the model Natalia Vodianova—resulted in an unexpectedly creative garment: a long tube dress that converts into a short funnel-necked number. Fifty dollars of the purchase of this design will be donated to Vodianova's Naked Heart Foundation. Looks like Lutz & Patmos is thinking big all around. —Laird Borrelli-Persson
Alberta Ferretti carried a bit of the safari theme from her main line into her younger, flirtier Philosophy collection. In addition, she played up a Moroccan mood through print, collarless silhouettes, and the layering of girlish, summery dresses over Ferretti's version of chalwar pants. That last bit of styling was unexpected and effective. —Laird Borrelli-Persson
There was not a trompe l'oeil conceit in sight at Moschino for Resort. Instead, the focus was on solid, salable clothes. In addition to a slew of drape-y dresses and structured coats, there were lots of chic pants looks for urbanites. Many of the slacks had the slouch and ease of pajamas—perhaps here was the signature Moschino twist. —Laird Borrelli-Persson
Alberta Ferretti stayed true to form for Resort, offering plenty of her famous pretty chiffon dresses. There was one significant difference, though: a lower price point. The house is aiming to give its fans a little bit more bang for their buck at the register, and that might be all the inducement they need to snap up a Fortuny-style pleated dress, a beige suede coat with "tribal" embroidery, a belted safari suit, or a flapper-ish, crystal-beaded, dance-the-night-away party dress. —Laird Borrelli-Persson
Roksanda Ilincic's pre-spring collection is emblematic of the renewed effort London designers are putting into upping their appeal. Until this season, pre- and Resort were pretty much a foreign language to British designers, but now they're figuring out what it all means and how to finesse their clothes in useful ways without dulling things down. For Ilincic, who belongs to the international breed of cocktail and evening designers who might find themselves in a bit of a corner now that the party boom is over, that means "trying to reach a wider audience with clothes you can use for more than one thing, changing the fabrics so they could be worn for day or evening, and adding pants, liquid jersey T-shirts, and jackets with the big shoulders I can't help doing."
Apart from considering how women might use, say, her long, lavender charmeuse dress—"it would look good on holiday with flat sandals or bare feet, or with done hair and heels for a Christmas party," she said—Ilincic has devoted the last year to improving the quality of her pieces. The new lightness and lingerie-fine finishes on her dresses, along with the weightless structure of her tailoring, represent a long stride forward. Her signature raw edges are resolved now with fine bindings of black lace—a subtle move, perhaps, but a smart one. In straitened times, the charm of amateurism, she's realized, has had its day. —Sarah Mower
With Michelle Obama as a new fan, Bruno Basso and Christopher Brooke are about to get an attention boost. So it was good timing that their Resort collection offered an accessible introduction to their world. Simplification of silhouette and their signature prints was the key. "We wanted to find a balance between reality and fantasy," said Basso. In sharp contrast to the hyper-rococo engineered prints that established their reputation, print master Basso exploded microscopic natural images of, for instance, ice particles to create psychedelic prisms that loaned themselves well to Brooke's easy shapes. There was a vibrantly cartoonish quality to a printed T-shirt dress, and the cartoon worked just as well with the duo's new jeans range. At the other end of the sophistication spectrum, Basso & Brooke's recent mastery of digital printing on sequins meant they could offer a whole new glamour option for daywear. A sequined tee paired with navy shorts might just about make it into Michelle's resort closet. —Tim Blanks
