For fall, Carmen March decided to review the three F’s—fabric, form, function—and streamline her vision accordingly.
“Everything is moving so fast, at a certain point I wanted to go very pure to what I think our core values are,” she explained during a showroom visit.
For the fabrics, she went all out on 100% silks, Shetlands, and soft leather, forsaking technical treatments and keeping it all as locally, responsibly sourced as possible. A classic film buff, she plucked form ideas from archival photos and a biography on Hedy Lamarr—a renegade in her time, Lamarr was the first movie star to appear nude and emulate a climax onscreen. She was also a pioneering scientist who many credit for inventing what we know now as Wi-Fi (she was posthumously inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame). March earmarked one part of the biography, in which the actress advises: “Ignore everything around you, work, and stick with what you believe is right.”
What came out of those considerations looked elegant, focused, and for the most part eminently wearable, now and over time. Men’s tailoring fabrics with a dash of sparkle is trending these days, and March played the balance judiciously with an olive-tone Shetland bustier dress lashed with crystal straps. Even without sparkle or a Lamarr-style portrait neckline, several of those Shetland pieces looked feminine and timeless.
Carmen March, like her base, loves a bolero, as well as polka dots to party in (look one being a case in point). A bustier dress—also in the tweed—looked striking and effortless, as did a long-sleeve asymmetrical dress in the season’s classic blue. Anyone wishing to channel the ’80s will be spoiled for choice—there were lots of body-con party dresses to choose from. The main takeaway, however, was that March proved how becoming restraint is for her brand.
