At a preview appointment for her latest collection, the intentionally transitional, ambiguously titled, May-arriving Pre-Fall, Tory Burch had change on her mind. “The customer is changing, people are changing, shopping is changing,” said Burch, holding one of her new flap-front leather bags (appealingly devoid of branding, save a subtle embossing on the inside). Burch was thinking, as much of the industry is, about social media, the immediacy of fast fashion, and the future of commerce, e- and otherwise. “The customer has so much access to so many things that I think they’re buying less,” said the designer, grazing over the current terror at the heart of each and every department store. “I think it’s good to edit. I want smaller, more focused, really concise collections in general,” she added. And for Burch, whose explosive success as a brand was founded on her vision for what her customer really wants—best defined, perhaps, as a sense of stylish pragmatism—that focus has zeroed in on Etel Adnan, the 91-year-old Lebanese-American artist whose work first attracted her a few years ago.
It was Adnan’s use of color and sense of line that Burch named as a starting point for her latest spin on 1970s-minded sportswear. To wit, a pleated silk skirt with beaded waistband; papyrus- and palm-printed silk separates; easy pullover tunics in ribbed, marled wool; and color-blocked mock-neck tops. There were also lightweight and heavier “bohemian” tweeds, and a floor-length sequined column emblazoned with one of Adnan’s gently layered color-scapes, which promised to feel as easy on the body as one of the caftans so often associated with the ’70s. “I’m stuck in that decade,” admitted Burch, though her mood boards betrayed a deeper communion, boasting Adnan quotes like “Colors exist for me as entities of themselves, as metaphysical beings” and “I write what I see, I paint what I am.” One “journalist” camera bag was inspired by Adnan’s penchant for “keeping her poetry on one side and her paintbrushes on the other,” said Burch.
There was a lot here for the Tory Burch customer to love (plus ça change). If a swinging lace minidress borrowed a bit from Valentino’s playbook, a landscape-dyed reversible nubby shearling and soft floral-appliquéd leather jacket proved that Burch has picked up the most important lesson from Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli: The best way to combat the customer’s urge to buy now/wear now is to give her something worth waiting for.
