Exciting news at Proenza Schouler: Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough are launching swimwear for Resort. The bikinis and one-pieces (not in the lookbook, sorry, girls) borrow prints and hardware from previous PS collections. One bikini with high-waisted briefs made it into the Resort presentation under a printed chiffon dress. Inspired by the artist Clyfford Still and cut into drapey blouses and pleated skirts that sat low on the waist, the chiffon was also something new for the designers, especially in light of the sculptural shapes that dominated their Fall runway. It looked like the beginning of something. Hernandez and McCollough like to say that the catwalk is for statement-making and that the pre-seasons are for commercial clothes. Maybe so, but it didn't feel like there was any slackening of effort or sense of experimentation here.
Take, for example, the color-blocked wrap dress. It was made from leather that was so finely etched it hardly looked or felt like leather at all. An amazing amount of work likewise went into a boxy T-shirt embroidered with bugle beads in a swirling marble-like motif. What's compelling is that despite all that work, Hernandez and McCollough have instilled these clothes with a real sense of ease. See the long knit tube skirt in a Clyfford Still-esque pattern and the tweed-effect knit sweatpants, which they teamed with everything from an asymmetric sleeveless top in a clashing print to a sharply cut double-breasted blazer. Perhaps most easeful of all: the banded leather flats with bright green soles. They're part of a freshly expanded shoe range.
