North Africa is trending for Resort. First Maria Cornejo, and now Derek Lam brought it up at his presentation today. But if Lam's collection was inspired by travel, it remained very urbane. A djellaba was reimagined as a sand-colored leather tunic with a slashed and raised front neckline, and shadows cast by the pyramids were rendered in a graphic color-blocked leather skirt. Not exactly clothes made for hopping on and off a group tour bus. As a designer, Lam is interested in a question like: What can make the suit look new? He answered it several ways this season, with a cashmere jersey top and matching skirt that qualified as a suit in only the loosest sense of the term—it's a two-piece outfit—and sleeveless peplum and cropped trouser sets that had a pleasing ease.
For evening, he played around with guipure lace in geometric designs (no florals or froufrou here). The dresses were interesting, and the gold and black in particular jibed with his theme, but they didn't quite match the beauty of a V-neck apron dress in white bonded satin. Lam has always loved a white frock, and this one was a keeper.
