Jonathan Simkhai Resort 2023
Like his fall collection, Jonathan Simkhai’s resort ready-to-wear mixed sleek and polished silhouettes with intriguing, textural ornamentations and geometric elements. Simkhai’s laser focus of the season was the circle, heavily influenced by the 1923 painting, Circles in a Circle, by artist and theorist, Wassily Kandinsky.
“Kandinsky was one of the most influential pioneers of abstract art and his devotion to the inner necessity of the artist paired with his ability to convey universal human emotions and ideas really sat with Jonathan while designing this collection,” the collection notes read.
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The result was thoughtful fashions with plenty of circular details, which worked exceptionally well across Simkhai’s diverse fabrications.
The look: Modern fashions with abstract-meets-elegant details.
Quote of note: “Thinking about self-expression was a big thing for me. Looking at circles, how they feel like a feminine shape, the way they enclose everything, and then infinity — there are so many levels,” Simkhai said. “There’s a whole theory about Kandinsky’s circles about working with children to express emotion, they’ll create circles in different colors, and the way they choose the colors and placement is different forms of expression. I think fashion is expression, obviously, so was thinking about how I could turn this inspiration into a story.”
Key pieces: Standout circular-shaped, engineered guipure lace and crochet dresses, jackets and little bra tops (as in a white minidress with long fringe, or black trenchcoat); colorful paillette-emblazoned dresses (or reversed skirt iterations with clear paillettes against colorful vegan leather bases); party-minded miniskirt and cropped top sets with ultra-short fringe and micro paillette hems; a smattering of novelty knits and utilitarian garb (a structured tan safari jacket and matching shorts with little pearl and ball studs decorations; new regenerated leather outerwear, made from industrial leather scraps); abstract mushroom plisse dresses and gowns; an expanded assortment of architectural footwear.
The takeaway: Simkhai’s iteration of “the concept of circles that represents renewal and infinite possibilities, mirrored from Kandinsky’s work,” was a smart extension of the brand’s counterbalance between artisanal feel and sleek sophistication.
Launch Gallery: Jonathan Simkhai Resort 2023
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