Need a crash course in the finest, most inconspicuously luxurious fabrics on the market? A visit to the Agnona showroom can provide it. And if you could secure Simon Holloway’s fluent, meticulous expertise to guide you through it, even the trickiest exam could be passed with top grades.
A fastidious attention to quality has always been embedded in the label’s DNA. For Resort, the variety of blends where silk, cashmere, and wool were variously combined to achieve an almost preternatural featheriness was mind-boggling. When you have at your disposal fabrics of such exquisiteness, you don’t need style pyrotechnics: Holloway’s play on shapes is subtle. Pure lines are substantiated by the fabrics’ discreet richness. It’s high-brow minimalism.
The designer always filters references through a contemporary lens; the Resort collection hinted lightly to an elegant ’80s aesthetic, as in Paul Schrader’s movie American Gigolo: “It recalls that clean American sensuality, but wardrobed in an Italian way,” said Holloway. “There was something about the relaxed tailoring mood of that time that I’m just feeling for at the moment, that polished American good taste but with that European luxury tailoring.”
Soft tailoring imbued with a light sporty flair was the collection’s strong point, highlighted by subtly mismatched textures and a neutral color palette. A checkered linen silk trench coat, thrown over an elongated chemisier dress with matching slouchy trousers in wool silk toile, was emblematic of the collection’s spirit, as was a loose-fit, deconstructed and unlined double-breasted blazer in fresco gabardine in a delicate linden color. “It’s a little David Bowie moment,” mused the designer, explaining that he took cue from a famous picture of the artist wearing a bright apple-green suit, toned down in the Agnona way.
Elsewhere, the chic, relaxed approach was reiterated in buttonless kimono-cut cabans in light double-faced silk-linen-cashmere blends, worn with ’70s-inspired midi skirts in buttery-soft nappa or with sporty slouchy pants. Dresses came mostly as fluid, elongated tunics worn over matching trousers, while an archival illustration provided the graphic patchwork-printed motifs for a feminine chemisier dress. Usually, the word patchwork evokes a disorderly feel: It wasn’t the case here. As with the rest of the collection, it was serene and poised. To cut through the fashion noise, you don’t need to scream to be heard.
