Resort is the season when you'd expect to find Matthew Williamson at his most Williamsonian. The tropical colors, the eye-popping prints, a caftan or two—the MW oeuvre seems fairly made for those who've got it made in the shade. So it was a surprise to enter Williamson's Resort presentation and find it titled the metropolitan-sounding Mechanical Nature. Whither the fluttering beachwear?
As it turns out, to a wholly separate collection Williamson's calling Escape, which launches in tandem with Resort. Giving the upper-deck set its own line has given the designer a chance to embrace the label's more urban side. Hence Resort's pleated, jodhpur-style trousers in navy, black, and taupe; washed napa leather jackets; and structured minidresses. (The lattermost aren't for the office, but the working months have off-hours, too.) For holiday events, a few floor-sweepers riffed on the ruched, bandage-style dress. They were about as cruise deck as it got, though the palette—in what Williamson called coral, poppy, and fluoro lime—stayed true to the house motifs. And of course, there'll never be a season without prints. Here they were what the designer called a "mechanized palm" print (sort of resembling a twisting helix of industrial parts), a geological agate print, and a toucan print. This last, in lurid orange and green, was the most resort-y of Resort—and as such, felt the most out of place. It was a false note in an otherwise strong showing.
