Next September will mark the 15th-anniversary collection of Temperley London, but today the Somerset cider farming scion who started it confessed that, in some respects, the label is still finding its stride. Daywear, for instance, was formerly penned within the Alice diffusion line. Now given equal billing with the ornately decorated eveningwear that first intoxicated customers hankering for romantic skirt swirlers, this category is getting all the love it merits. "Each season we look at what has been done really well," said Alice Temperley, "and then we attempt to evolve it."
This Resort collection's daywear saw an interplay of raffishly dapper masculine suiting—with exaggerated peaks at the lapel to counterbalance the width of the pants below it—against pieces both freeing and feminine. This included a white lace jumpsuit whose leg line was just as generously angled. Shirting-striped, sand-washed silk in shades of gray seemed an un-Temperley fabric, but the roll of sleeve-over-cuff in a Nehru-collar dress interjected cavalier dash. An archive-sourced antique geometric pattern that was blown up, shrunken, and reconfigured in jacquard laces and knits appeared easy to wear but hard not to look at twice.
On into evening, the red, white, and blue patterned embroideries on tulle were inspired by Russian dolls and Native American motifs. All of the Temperley handwork is done in the Delhi factory with which the designer has collaborated almost since the start. Still, the selling point of this collection was its focus-zone daywear.
