"In this, the most bourgeois season designers do, I liked the contrast of being really conscious about the materials," Cynthia Rowley said at her Resort presentation. That explains why she embellished dresses and sandals with ditsy floral fabric and yards of mismatched ribbon, leftovers from seasons past. Along similar lines, the designer refashioned newspaper into giant hair bows.
An outdoorsy theme prevailed (intarsia sweaters with bright tennis ball patterns, gold fishhook necklaces), though an airbrushed "graffiti party" frock nodded to more urban activities. Set to a backdrop of pal Marilyn Minter's oversize sexually charged paintings at Salon 94 gallery, the effect was at once sweet, kooky, and edgy—in other words, more or less what one has come to expect from Rowley's shows.
