Au Jour Le Jour designers Diego Marquez and Mirko Fontana have gone fishing. In reconsidering what they stand for and keeping things tight, the duo wisely dialed back (all things being relative) and came up with a Resort collection studded with Hawaiian-inspired but wearable clothes. While experimenting with prints and whimsical embroidery—koi fish on bleached-out denim, sequined posies on a sheer baseball jacket, beaded daisies—they kept things on an even keel with simple shapes. Here’s betting that the romantic vintage florals, which in some other decade would have been perfectly at home on granny’s bedroom wall, will find their audience.
“We tried to pair a strong identity with a more transversal wardrobe,” offered Marquez. “We were going for sophistication, but mixed with sporty detail.” Which is how unexpected fabrics moved in on sportswear classics, think duchesse satin primrose or printed crepe with nylon or a chiffon with a utility zip closure. Daisies and sports signatures: hardly an obvious coupling, but well handled on jumpsuits and flared dresses. The brand’s logo cropped up as a racing patch on boxing shorts and windbreakers—one red one ran to the floor—while a blue plaid shirt mixed it up with giant silver eyelets strung with AJLJ-printed ribbons as a back closure. Is the margarita (daisy) and vintage rose jumpsuit a little OTT? Yes, but it’s all in good fun. In fact, it somehow comes out making perfect sense. “Growing up is always a challenge,” allows Marquez. “But that’s what we want.”
