Coming off an unusually dark Fall collection sent Carolina Herrera into a multicolored, frothy Resort. Resort dressing, she said in a salon-style presentation today, is about color, femininity, and fun. "You must find some element of fun in every piece," she opined, "or the element of Resort is lost entirely."
That giddiness was clear in her prints, like the illustrated, half-abstracted cartoon of paramours mid-clinch that she called The Lovers. It was there in another printed dress, which had rabbits scampering over a cloudy-colored skirt. ("Rabbits are always lovers," she deadpanned.) She mixed materials from top to bottom of looks—like a peplum-accented cotton skirt with a silk twill shirt, both in lover print—and a cocktail dress in both the positive and negative versions of a double-faced polka-dot jacquard. There were simpler cotton color-blocked sheaths and crystal-embroidered eveningwear, too, lest any longtime fans be left out of the fun.
But the best part of this range was the license it gave Herrera to play around. Lace frocks stayed on the racks. The versions she showed had lace print on gazar instead, or a lace-mimicking jacquard. "There'll always be lace," she said, "but it can be a little tired. This is a bit younger, no?" Yes. Not a new idea, but a nice development nonetheless for the Herrera atelier—which, by the way, has been expanded and now occupies its own, full floor. "They're in heaven," she reported. It takes fun to make fun.
