Creatures of Comfort lived up to its name this season with a lineup of loose frocks, blouses, and wide-leg pants that channeled one’s inner domestic, as creative director Jade Lai, a new mom, has done in recent months. More specifically, Lai turned to the mid-century architecture of Pierre Koenig, as photographed by Julius Shulman, whose iconic California modernist homes—glass-walled, to welcome fresh air and sun—have been a longtime favorite of hers. “I’ve always wanted to live in one,” she says. “That was the starting point, then it became about domesticity.”
Lai’s creature comforts included a crinkle cotton with metal woven into the fibers to get a crisp texture and add subtle gleam to the typically flat white shirting. Texture was important this season, from those cottons to a squeezable plaid ponté to a hand-crocheted nylon knit with bubbling pockets of yarn. Silhouettes were long and loose, and included swing coats and circle skirts that created gentle movement, or tunics and elastic tops that could be worn on or off the shoulder (bonus: They pull down to permit easy breastfeeding). “I’ve been really into little girls’ shoes,” Lai adds of the cow-print buckled flats on display. “You’ll see more of that in Spring.” Paired with a languid stretch drop-waist dress in a candy pink color (pulled from one of her young son’s toy blocks), it hit that Resort sweet spot of a one-and-done item that evokes easier times.
