With midday sun pouring through the skylights of Cacharel’s upper-floor showroom, the extra heat supplied an unintentionally fitting ambiance for this extra breezy, colorful collection. The design studio opted for a strong throwback to the 1960s, when the French brand was just getting started—and when silhouettes were typically leggy or eggy. But what stopped the collection from drifting too far down memory lane was its overt bid to attract millennials by reincarnating the Brigitte Bardot archetype as a sportier city gal. As the brand envisions it, she wears her nipped-waist pleated or draped dresses with tennis shoes and pairs a shrunken anemone-patterned blouson and matching baseball cap with relaxed red jeans. She is drawn to prints that feel as digitally remastered and remixed as DNCE’s version of Rod Stewart’s “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy.” Her ideal version of a suit is striped, stretchy jersey that hugs her barre-class curves. Most important, she can add these pieces to her closet at prices she can probably afford.
If all the bare-shoulder looks registered as late to the trend, the ruffled- or cuffed-sleeve updates made the case that the cold shoulder has not lost its cool. And given the emphasis on floaty silks and light knits, the inclusion of some double-face, egg-shaped knits in solid hues addressed the need for early-season layers. If only there were a corresponding range of sneakers picking up on some of the prints, the offering would have been complete. But the recent debut of Cacharel’s e-shop will assist their target ingenues who might be online searching for a reinterpreted babydoll dress.
