A Chequered Past, Peter Schlesinger's photographic history of 1970's style icons like David Hockney, Bryan Ferry, Rudolf Nureyev, and Twiggy, set Carven's Guillaume Henry down the garden path for Resort. An English garden, to be precise. Henry re-created one using real flowers, bushels of them, in a Meatpacking District studio today and used it as a backdrop for a fresh, colorful, slightly bohemian collection of the kind of tailored separates and little dresses he's made his specialty at the Paris label.
The bohemian element was the news here. A paisley-print shift tapped into the gypsy feeling seen at other houses this season, as did another little dress with a bodice that wrapped like a sari, showing off a triangle of skin below the bust line. Another little number in black piped with royal blue had a deep, wide neckline that Schlesinger subject Ossie Clark wouldn't have minded putting his own name on. How a black leather padded motorcycle jacket in the Celine mold fit the story isn't entirely clear, but "the mix of personalities," as Henry put it, was part of his point this season. In any case, it'll find customers when Carven opens its first New York store sometime in 2013.
