“Take me out, it’s sunny outside,” said an upbeat Alessandra Rich when asked to summarize her collection’s mood. Eager like the rest of us to leave behind the doom and gloom of the past two years and “feel the heat of the sun on the skin,” she tuned in to the current obsession for the sexy, skimpy, body-con look that emerged as a sort of analog antidote to the frigid digital lexicon embraced during lockdowns.
The über-seductive numbers she’s offering for summer are skin baring and revealing, with accents on irony and irreverence. Rich thinks that fashion rules shouldn’t be taken too seriously and that women ought to enjoy their body and flaunt it with confidence. “A woman must above all please herself,” she said.
There’s plenty to flaunt in the collection, which nods to a younger audience with a penchant for Y2K nostalgia. In the mix are shimmery laminated Lycra leggings in citrus tones worn with matching long-sleeve, midriff-baring tops; microminiskirts, hot pants, or culottes peeking out from strong-shouldered tailored blazers in bouclé tweed the color of lollipops; and skimpy bikinis and bralettes barely concealed under fitted, abundantly bejeweled pinstripe jackets. Knitwear got the sexy treatment too, offered in unlined openwork versions to amp up the see-through factor, as in a body-skimming off-white midiskirt or a pair of bell-bottom black leggings paired with a crisscross bikini top for a slight bondage-y effect. “It’s bourgeois bondage, though,” specified Rich, emphasizing the conservative underpinnings of her style.
It’s no secret that Kate Middleton, the always meticulously put together Duchess of Cambridge, is one of her most faithful clients. Her favorite Madame dresses are proposed in new summery iterations: midi length, neatly pleated, primly collared, pussybowed, and printed in small floral motifs or polka dots in feisty colors. “A woman can be many women,” reflected Rich. “Delicate and feminine or audacious and bold.” Who knows if the duchess agrees.
