Bali or bust! Awaveawake’s Spring ’16 collection served as a lush testament to time spent on the Indonesian island. Designer Jaclyn Hodes didn’t lose sight of her m.o. of organically luxe styles or allow the trip to set her adrift on a sea of the tangential. Instead, like last season’s Jaipur-hued outing, it served as a lens through which to subtly reinterpret all the things that have earned her label its following: the languid, bias-cut slip dresses and the tops and skirts made for layering (informed by Hodes’s work as a stylist).
There was plenty of lightness to be had here. The substantial-feeling lushness of washed silk charmeuse has long been a hallmark of Awaveawake, but in the interest of retail in the warmer months, Hodes diffused her signature material with styles in easy-to-wear, easy-to-care-for cotton. Elsewhere, Fall’s hardy cowl-neck sweatshirt came to feminine new life in a floral lace. The designer’s clothes have an undeniably earthy, even holistic quality to them, but with sophistication to spare. To wit: Spring’s apron dress, with its lithe, body-skimming shape and plunging back. With pieces like that, she’ll make a sensualist out of every one of us yet.
