A vacation to Spain this summer provided designer Rozae Nichols with fodder for Pre-Fall. The rich mosaics of Seville informed many of the patterns, while traditional Andalusian flamenco dress inspired the pieces fringed in silk and fluid braided strings.
In some cases, these influences intermingled in inventive ways—a structured shift dress with sporty mesh cutouts, for instance, was unexpectedly adorned with a silk fringed hem. It worked. Elsewhere, the trip’s influence was less direct: The collection was chock-full of pajama silhouettes—printed jumpsuits and shirtdresses with piping—that Nichols mused might have been inspired by “the leisure of the holiday.”
For Spring 2016, Nichols was intent on taking her signature prints to the next dimension, as in 3-D. Here, she played with significantly less embellishment, but when she did use it it led to some of her strongest pieces, like a paillette-adorned shell top. Other favorites included the series of knit pieces with a trompe-l’oeil design that suggested the curve of a bosom.
