There was a can of grapefruit La Croix on Dana Arbib’s Resort 2019 mood board. Next to it: photos of ultra-sleek Miami homes and pools, Helmut Newton’s famous Vogue photo of women in pink dresses with flowers in their hair, and film stills from Cocktail. The message was unmistakably ’80s, but it wasn’t the same ’80s we’ve been seeing on the runway. In lieu of big shoulder pads, garish colors, and sequined party dresses, Arbib was thinking about a warmer, sultrier vibe, which she jokingly referred to as “the Crystal Light ’80s,” when campy commercials for the powdered drink were on TV and everyone sipped it by the pool. Crystal Light still exists, in case you were wondering, but La Croix (which launched in 1981, a year before Crystal Light!) is the sipping beverage of choice these days.
The streaks of pale pink, orange, and teal on that ’80s La Croix can actually summed up Arbib’s vision pretty well: The colors turned up on her sheer Peruvian knit dresses, and matching sets of linen trousers and knotted blouses came in a similar graphic, tropical motif. As for the shimmery caftans, flared miniskirts, and loose silk button-downs, they could’ve been plucked right out of Elisabeth Shue’s vacation wardrobe in Cocktail. They were sexy in a languid, relaxed way, and the colors were transporting. Arbib has a knack for unlikely clashes, a product of her frequent globe-trotting and artisan partnerships: Consider the jewel-toned stripes of fuchsia, lime, and cobalt on a plunging wrap dress, or the violet and Lurex ribbons on a strapless number. Those dresses nodded to a softer, more casual moment in the ’80s but would actually look a lot more polished than the shredded cut-offs and bra tops that constitute “resortwear” in 2018.
