Cacharel has added 50 U.S. stores to its account roster since its Fall 2010 show in March. The storied French label's new designer, Cédric Charlier, late of Lanvin and Michael Kors-era Celine, is doing something right. For Resort, his third collection for the house, his something right is print. Working with his team, he manipulated his own photographs of flowers into electric florals. They appear landscape-style on a simple T-shirt dress or more abstractly as an all-over print on a blouse and matching pants (an important Resort trend; see also Balenciaga and Celine).
The blouse was Cacharel's signature back in its seventies heyday, and Charlier paid specific attention to it here, adding back darts and seams to enhance fit, elongating it into shirtdresses, or rejiggering it entirely as a V-neck cardigan. The best thing about his not-so-basic basics? Their entry-level designer price points mean you might have something left over for one of his very special dresses.
