For Resort, Manuela Mariotti, Dondup’s creative director, took inspiration from Farm, a stunning book by photographer Jackie Nickerson published in 2002. After a career in fashion, Nickerson bought a truck and spent two and a half years traveling non-stop in Sub-Saharan Africa, documenting the lives of migrant laborers across rural areas in Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. They became the subjects of a series of portraits; a powerful, poignant homage to the workers’ incredible dignity and sense of style. The way they mixed and matched rags and found pieces of clothing had an inventive sense of play and freedom that could teach a thing or two to a few designers.
Mariotti tried to capture that spirit of spontaneous creative “fusion” in his lineup today, mixing practicality with a touch of edge. “I wanted to express a feel for something domestic yet urban,” she said. The designer poured quite a lot of disparate references into her collection, reveling in a sort of freewheeling assemblage attitude. Masculine tailoring inspired long checked linen dusters paired with ankle-length skirts; fitted blazers were worn with wide, floor-sweeping palazzo pants. Sports such as motocross, badminton, swimming, and rugby were also thrown into the mix. Knitted striped trimmings graced linen oversize shirt-jacket hybrids (apparently they’re called “shakets”); leather striped pants were at the ready in case you might fancy a ride on a Kawasaki. Elongated tennis-inspired cotton sweaters were worn over shirtdresses in crisp poplin with ruched hems. To make sure she didn’t miss anything, the ebullient Mariotti also added feminine floral prints, Vichy checks, and stainless steel woven denim to complete the dense stylistic mash-up.
