In the beginning, there was Boy and lo, it was good. But then Boy begat Girl, and really, Band begat both, and the whole thing begat complications for retailers and editors alike. Scott Sternberg, designer of the whole lot, was not insensitive to this. He's renamed the whole enterprise—men's and women's both—Band of Outsiders. Lo: Now that's good.
Semantics is a relatively small part of fashion, but the simplification not only eased the usual wonderings about what was what and which went where, but also gave Sternberg a chance to revisit some past hits. As an added bonus, the women's lineup gelled nicely with the men's collection, too: The designer had in mind the musical spectacle he staged at Pitti Uomo two years back, for all the collections the label made. So this outing had some of that fifties-meets-eighties flavor, with drop-sleeved leather jackets, skinny cigarette pants, and flat loafers. But then there was a multicolored version of the bandage skirt Band has been selling for seasons, and a collection of soft, silky maxi dresses like those Sternberg once showed for Girl. Add in those pieces that were cross-pollinated from the menswear—the dégradé anorak, for instance—and the immersion in Band World felt complete.
On the side of newness were prints and intarsias by the Israeli artist Guy Yanai, commissioned by Sternberg to give a Resort feel: bright, poppy blocks of saturated colors, and Hockney-esque swimming pools surrounded by supersize palm trees.
