After his last Paris show, Joseph Altuzarra and his husband went on vacation to Marrakech. Altuzarra said the sense of freedom and independence he experienced there was the feeling he wanted to conjure with his new collection. That’s not that far off from the spirit of his Spring outing, but where that collection felt like it was stuck on holiday, this one was designed to address multiple needs and scenarios, without losing its wanderlust-ing vibes.
Since his first collection exactly 10 years ago, Altuzarra has displayed a maturity that belies his years. In his best collections, practicality has gone hand in hand with the sensuality he’s better known for. These clothes reminded this longtime Altuzarra watcher of one of his early breakthroughs, Fall 2012, which was characterized by a similar blend of assertive tailoring and outerwear, Morocco-by-way-of-India prints and decorative motifs. In fact, a couple of the pieces looked further back than that. Altuzarra resurrected a cashmere wool wrap coat with mink fringe from his Fall 2009 debut as both a leather Perfecto and a trench with removable leather sleeves. “I thought it still looked relevant,” he said.
There was a handful of coats here designed for longevity, among them a classic black double-breasted, midi-length style in wool, and a trench in a black and white tattersall check. With others, he took a more playful approach, needle-punching the yoke of a Fair Isle sweater to a zebra-stripe coat, or giving a biker jacket cable-knit sleeves.
That hybridizing technique extended to the ready-to-wear: Minidresses mashed up T-shirts and paisley prints, and longer dresses combined fisherman’s knit bodices with plissé lamé skirts. This wasn’t experimentation for experimentation’s sake, but an effort on Altuzarra’s part to achieve a certain kind of ease. In the end, though, nothing beats the simplicity of a good dress. The designer has been a go-to resource for easy-to-wear statement dresses since his earliest days. This season’s entrant in that category was a one-shoulder, ruffled, plissé paisley.
