In a system that’s already upside down and backward (consider the mentality that delivers sandals and bikinis in January; fur coats in July), Resort is something of an idealized take on a fashion season, one where hypothetical consumers are immune to the wretched economic climate and frigid retail environment, and flee to far-flung locales at the first sign of winter. This fantasy meets its match in Missoni, a label wherein everything is chic and easy and totally effortless, if you have the lifestyle (and the figure) that allows you to rock a rainbow zigzag from towel to turban. Resort is really Missoni’s season; what other house has made such hay out of a sun-drenched lifestyle?
Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of Angela Missoni at the helm of her family’s fashion empire. It’s been a lot more zigs than zags over the years, with last season’s showing a home run of the line’s classic hits (a collection as comforting to fans of the label as a thick pile of cashmere knits), and this collection continued in a mostly similar vein: sheer little polo knits and plissé skirts; thick, shaggy vests and patchworked shift dresses; knit hot pants and palazzo trousers and woven sheath dresses in a muted, November-friendly palette; a blown-up tartan print straight from the house’s archive (a welcome wardrobe addition come late fall for city dwellers); and jewel-toned Lurex for evening. There were some items that didn’t quite fit the bill, like T-shirts that boasted patchwork symbols, one in a Star of David–like six-pointed star, and a few emerald and rainbow-striped Lurex and eyelash-fringed items felt a little reminiscent of relatively recent work by Marco de Vincenzo, another designer with an eye for textiles and a profound appreciation of Italian artistry. But when it came to the classics, like the swinging ’70s silhouettes and easy, breezy, meant-for-a-dream-vacation items, like a new, romantic, peasant-skirt hemmed silhouette, they were all very welcome, and all very Missoni.
