Beyond a grain-strewn runway the exact ochre shade of Roland Garros center court, a full moon breached the horizon of its dot-matrix screen and rose behind a skyscape of roiling cloud. This was, said David Koma afterwards, the result of a midwinter studio daydream. “I was starting do this collection, and it was raining outside. I’d already had some thoughts about the color palette: dark and wintery. But then, when I looked out, I thought, I need some sun! Some dreams about heat. I love the imagery of the savannah, so I started with the colors of yellow and orange.” Don’t mistake this for a Safari collection, however. Koma’s iteration of Mugler as destination of choice for those in search of tightly structured, cleverly conceived, metallic-accented, body-con would not have allowed for bandoliers, cargo pants, and sun hats. Still, that stormy-night impulse did bear some new fruit. Leopard flocage on tulle—sometimes underlaid with a poppy yellow—morphed into an expression of the same pattern cleverly realized through flat silver chains whose shape dissolved with motion.
Croc featured heavily, either as the texture on wide-notch lapels, a white stitched frame within Koma’s signature modular designs, or—most interestingly—in one off-the-shoulder black dress of croc sliced vertically, then bonded to red jersey beneath. Movement gave the strips kinetic life and give as they revealed lines of scarlet beneath. Key Koma pieces included one black jumpsuit with a neckline of two stitched arcs—seemingly simple and very striking. Flat white loafers worn beneath wide-waistband, hip-slung, loose black crepe pants represented a gently successful evolution toward ease, although the opening one-shouldered leather look erred on the lumpen. Slit skirted gladiator dresses flirted, inevitably, with the Italianate but had a tough sleekness. One particular minidress—open-backed and angularly hemmed in black jersey with two lines of white-flecked croc running from armpit to thigh—had blunderbuss power. Not all these looks shared that potency, it’s true, but this was a moonlight diversion worth taking.
