Marina Moscone’s Resort mood board was pinned with photos of Mia Farrow and Lee Radziwill, two women who helped define fashion in the ’60s and ’70s. If you re-created their looks today, we have a feeling you wouldn’t get much attention from street style photographers. They wore relatively simple pieces, and had an “undone, casual elegance” about them, as Moscone puts it. It was a different kind of casual dressing, one that doesn’t really exist anymore. Now, it seems you’re either dressed to the nines (for a big event or a photo op) or you’re chilling out in cashmere sweats. Moscone is drawn to the in-between area: polished, but not “fancy” pieces that call for neither jeans nor stilettos.
For Resort, that translated to “evening shapes for day.” “No one wants to change for an event after work anymore,” she said. “I think the new elegance is about adding and removing pieces to what you’re wearing, and folding in transparencies.” On that note, she designed slip dresses with completely transparent layers on top; you could feasibly wear the ballet-pink slip dress to the office with a big sweater or blazer, then add the sheer layer and heels for a big night out. (A bonus of the sheer styling trick: It’s virtually seasonless.)
Moscone’s signature draped and twisted dresses felt a bit closer to her day-to-night vision. The twists—each impressively done by hand—lent a sarong-like ease to otherwise upscale dresses, including a deep-rose midi dress with a twist in the center and a pastel sheath with raw edges.
Her attention to those unfinished details felt new. A common critique in the past was that her clothes felt too rarefied, but those fraying silk threads added a touch of warmth. On the other hand, some of her pieces were finished to the nth degree, including the silk-wool double-breasted jackets with curvy Basque tailoring through the hips. The interiors were done completely by hand, a couture detail that modern-day Farrow and Radziwill types will appreciate.
