With Resort 2017, we’ve entered the second season of an experiment in which top labels are holding collection photos until the clothes and accessories are just about to arrive in stores. Losing months of press attention is a gamble, but the thinking is that shopper fatigue is less likely to take root this way. Also, the fast-fashion companies will have not as much time to create copies. About a dozen brands have adopted this schedule, up from half a dozen or so for Pre-Fall.
In Proenza Schouler’s case, we’d say the exercise is working. Having witnessed designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s Spring collection on the runway last month, their Pre-Spring offering (presented in Paris last July, but only appearing online now) looks all the more tempting: a tasty appetizer of color-blocked knit separates and languid dresses that will thrill fans until the main course arrives early next year.
McCollough and Hernandez evolve from season to season rather than pivot like, say, Marc Jacobs does. But now the connections between the seasons are more easily made. There are through-lines in the unconventional tailoring (see: the smart three-button jackets with cutaway hems) and synergies between the color palettes (bold and primary in both cases). Of course, another way to think of this is simply that the Proenza boys are on a roll. But as terrific as their runway show for Spring was, Resort might have it beat in one regard, and that’s in the pair of bias-cut, sleeveless flower-print dresses shown in Looks 8 and 10 here: just about irresistible.
