Desire. Some designers get the concept better than others, but few understand it as well as Roland Mouret. His talents as a dressmaker are fairly legendary; type "Galaxy dress" into Google to see what we mean. You can be sure he brought those skills to bear on his new collection for Spring. With a store opening at 952 Madison Avenue in November (his first in the States), brand identity was a theme of the show. And so there were lots of sensationally cut sheaths, their complex construction highlighted by the fact that the designer was often mixing materials or combining several colors in one piece, as was the case with one crepe de Chine beauty blocked in ivory, sky blue, lilac, and buttercup yellow, finished off with a peach suede belt. Mouret's dresses look good coming, but this season he lavished extra attention on the back of garments as well, draping some with a panel boasting a large hibiscus blossom. Utterly unnecessary, and thus all the more exquisite.
It would be a stretch to call this Mouret's American collection, but outside of his signature dresses, he was busy injecting the lineup with sporty touches, with an eye perhaps to filling up that Mad. Ave. shop: cotton piqué for a little tank and walking shorts, contrast collar button-up shirts, and peppy little dresses with front zips that looked like they could walk right onto a tennis court. As for the curved seams of A-line skirts, Mouret said they were an entirely new proposition for him and that they came from a close study of Charles James, the American couturier. Apropos of that, Mouret—if he were ever interested—would be a savvy hire for the Charles James revival that Harvey Weinstein is said to be undertaking.
