Diego Marquez and Mirko Fontana have been streamlining their vision lately. Moonlighting for the Italian brand Dondup has something to do with it but that doesn’t mean the designers have lost their sense of fun. And, as it happens, reining it in (relatively speaking) is making their clothes stronger.
For Resort, Au Jour Le Jour takes a spin down Mexico way, gleefully embellishing tops, skirts, and jackets with cacti, fronds, and red hot chilis, not to mention tassels, rhinestones, raffia, and paillettes, plus the odd margarita glass.
“We tried to keep the ideas that everyone has of Mexican colors and folklore but interpret in a more modern, clean, urban way,” noted Marquez. That entailed a lot of fabric research, working fil coupé into a 3-D cactus motif on a jacket, for example. Elsewhere, chili peppers cascade down a shift with a flounced neck. A wide flounced skirt is slightly literal, but cute nonetheless. And then the party really gathers steam with embroidered dresses and blouses that bring all the tropes—cocktails, sombreros, guitars, cacti, maracas, et cetera—together in one place, with sequins, velvet, and embroidery. A fringed pantsuit pushed the theme overboard, but for the gal who parties until dawn, the fully sequined, striped, low-back dress should do the trick.
For denim, AJLJ looked to workwear but switched up the proportions on overalls, hitching a jeans’ waist up to the bust and edging the pockets with tassels. Not everyone can pull off a look like that—just the cool crowd.
