Peter Dundas has had quite a run this year, putting Beyoncé, Blake Lively, Rihanna, and, don't forget, Jane Fonda in his Spring and Fall collections. "I ran out of dresses," he said today of his fittings at the Cannes Film Festival. The Emilio Pucci label and Dundas himself are enjoying a higher profile these days, and Resort will only add to the brand's growing visibility, even though the designer seems to have set his sights on his customers' off-hours. As in off-the-red-carpet hours.
To start with, Dundas has launched a denim line featuring super-skinny, brightly colored jeans, and for another thing, he's focused on tailoring, specifically shrunken schoolboy pantsuits shown with sweet Peter Pan-collared cotton voile shirts. A jacket in a zebra pattern updated from the archives that was worn with blue jeans also looked great. The designer is known for va-va-voom, but he can cut a jacket with the best of them.
Still, it wouldn't be a Dundas collection if there wasn't plenty of sex. This season, it came in the form of a billowy caftan that offered a glimpse of bikini underneath, a body-hugging draped one-shoulder gown, and a black broderie anglaise top and long skirt with family crests woven into the fabric. It was sexy because it was see-through in the right light, not because it exposed acres of flesh, although the collection did include a few minidresses for the less-is-more crowd. The most irresistible evening look demurely channeled the house's Capri jet-set past. The Pucci print voile blouse loosely tucked into a long narrow skirt picked out in matching sequins would make a bold red-carpet choice: It'll be a lucky A-lister who nabs it first.
