Christian Siriano collects—and is inspired by—the work of young Charleston-based painter Teil Duncan, so he asked her to collaborate on a lookbook for Resort. In it, models pose against a wall of Duncan's paintings while she works in the background.
The artist's saturated pastels served as a starting point for Siriano, who said Resort performed so well for him last year that he chose to expand the collection even further for 2014. "There are a lot of options," he said on Thursday at his studio, where Duncan's paintings were still sitting out among the racks of clothes.
The pow! colors made the first impression, then the diversity in silhouette. A painterly floral brocade, done in yellow and green or pink and red, looked best on a dress with a structured top and handkerchief skirt. A long lavender silk dress had a panel of peach pleating attached to one hip, and there was a shorter take on the likable silhouette in magenta and guppy green.
Siriano's oversize palm print in burnout organza worked well on a strapless ball gown with a slightly shorter front, and also on a simple sheath. A few looks could have been deleted from the lineup, particularly a magenta silk shirt with blocks of yellow and green—too loud in an already loud room—and a black-and-white long-sleeve column gown, which had a mountain of appliqués. But Siriano generally seems to understand what his customer wants, and is emboldened to give it to her.
