A slew of firsts for designer Audra Danielle Noyes: This season marks the first Resort collection for her now-five-year-old label, which will receive its first dedicated Moda Operandi trunk show. To celebrate these milestones, Noyes decided to revisit her core styles but play with a few new fabrics, such as a denim blended with soft, sustainable Tencel.
Noyes pinned a quote from Janet Fitch’s novel White Oleander on the wall of her studio: “She would be half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to a flamenco guitar.” The evocative phrase helped her craft a slim selection of easy day-to-night, vacation-friendly items. As always, there were several takes on shirting, among them a new “twisted” style that featured a single sleeve-like fragment at the navel to be wrapped around the waist. A few shirtdresses neatly fit the bill for conservative yet cute daywear, including one in a pretty white and gold fil coupe floral with tiny pouf sleeves.
Noyes smartly speaks to a demographic often forgotten by those designers who live in metropolitan bubbles. Her clients range wider in age, from their mid-30s up into their 60s and 70s, and live on both coasts and the Midwest. Many are working women, searching for office-to-after-hours attire. One imagines Noyes would do quite well in the Bay Area, for instance, and her brand’s expanded showing on Moda Operandi will no doubt put that theory to the test.
