What says "Resort" like a touch of the seafaring? This season Sportmax's précis was a nautical one, complete with rope, grommets, and a palette of reds and blues that lent the brand's clean lines a kind of utilitarian whimsy. Shapes skewed toward the oversized: There were loose culottes, and boxy jackets and tunics were worn cinched, haphazard at the waist. Those aforementioned ropes came to life as an undulating graphic print, but even more coolly as a chunky 3-D knit. Pieces like a suede A-line dress were polished and sweet, but details like big patch pockets prevented them from teetering on the precious. All around there was that impeccably anonymous kind of luxury so many designers are striving for these days, though in places, it was perhaps a touch too anonymous. Sure, on a Tommy Ton mainstay like lookbook girl Veronika Heilbrunner, even the simplest of pieces come to life in a way that demands to be captured on film; but for the under 6-footers among us, some of Sportmax's simpler propositions will take a little stylistic massaging to coax into life. Still, there were plenty of covetable developments here (pairs of front-seamed denim culottes, and the great knits and outerwear all spring to mind), and on fabrication alone, for the price Sportmax continues to be in a league all its own.
