Roland Mouret had his Resort collection shot on and around the windswept shingle beaches of Suffolk, the county on the far east coast of England, where the designer has his country escape from London. To be honest, the English seaside in winter isn’t exactly a resort where his clothes are likely to be worn, but there’s a lot that is designed to be packed for sunnier climes. After 20 years in fashion—he’s celebrating his anniversary this year—Mouret knows his customers’ tastes, and where they’ll be in the world, inside out.
His original hallmarks are all here—the asymmetrical, folded, and overlapping panels; the sense of the waist; suspended necklines; the externalized seams—but the collection, save for a couple of pencil-skirted silhouettes, has long been going with a more relaxed flow.
Women who pop into Mouret’s Mayfair shop this week will be able to rifle through all that’s offered here, feel the slubby textures and the silks, appraise the shapes—and get a first sniff of Une Amourette, his debut perfume, into the bargain. The name is a typical Mouret-ism. Amourette translates as a fling—a suggestive name that underlines the French flirtatiousness which is also embedded in the Roland Mouret brand. But how to put it? His isn’t the obvious ooh-la-la type of come-on, but something more grown-up and not too try-hard; sexiness in a modernist vein.
It might come in the form of corseted tops, yes, but the bustier might form the top of a red jumpsuit, or end in a peplum with a ragged edge. There’s fluttery sensuality in the loose black silk dress with knotted sleeves, and the Japanese Iris fil coupe one, too, but they’re a long way from the sucked-in power-mesh-lined hourglass silhouettes he brought to the fashion front lines originally. These are much less rigidly formal times, but the Mouret wardrobe is still a refuge for women who want to retain a sophisticated front.