Cynthia Rowley is fascinated with movement and making clothes come alive on the body. For Resort '12, the designer brought in Reed + Rader to create a GIF-based lookbook, and she is reprising the animated idea for her new collection; the video will appear on her site later this month. Rowley used Mylar balloons as a jumping-off point for the season and literally integrated them into the new lookbook as talk bubbles floating above the models' heads. You can see the shiny inflatables' influence in the Saran wrap-like sheen of a matching floral jacquard tank and second-skin pants. Ditto goes for the polarized round sunglasses that Rowley wanted to look "like Plexiglas dots stuck on your eyeballs." Exploring dots in both 2-D and 3-D, she featured a bubble print in addition to embellished cabochon gemstones on one memorable dress.
But the real high point here was her watercolor-patterned pro-grade wet suit. The designer is a huge surfer and escapes to Montauk on summer weekends to catch some waves, so she knows what works in terms of durable surf gear. She created a similar wet suit for Lindsay Lohan to wear in Richard Phillips' new short film First Point, which debuts later this week at Art Basel. Judging by the convincing product placement, we'd say the neoprene number will be a big hit with sales.
