As designers go, Rachel Comey is typically pretty free of overt vintage references; she’s absorbed enough in her own, contemporary, idiosyncratic aesthetic that she doesn’t need to trawl out retro pastiche. But Comey’s summery Pre-Fall collections do tend to bring out her playful side, and on this occasion the play included a rummage in the thrift shop bins. The referencing wasn’t overly literal, but the looks put you mind of that ’70s-era rich hippie look, lissome English socialites rollicking around islands in the Aegean or Caribbean in gauzy dresses, Liberty prints, maxi skirts, and crochet.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the vibe here was of a ’90s-era magpie play-acting that rich hippie part. Either way, Comey did a nice job of folding reminiscence into a collection that more or less read as Rachel Comey–esque, what with the plethora of jumpsuits, the strong textural mix, the eccentric palette, and the emphasis on blouson shapes. An ensemble featuring a strapless jumpsuit in bubblegum pink and a hazelnut duster of featherweight Cupro seemed to reference nothing so much as Rachel Comey herself—or, at any rate, the Rachel Comey woman of today. And why not? That’s certainly as fine a look for rollicking around islands in as any of those Talitha Getty getups were, back in the day.
