The Resort 2024 Eveningwear Market
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Talks of a spending pullback on luxury fashion in the U.S. haven’t quite dimmed the eveningwear market’s sparkle, but it did have designers considering ways to stretch a dollar for resort, with an emphasis on lighter fabrics, prints over embellishment and mix-and-match separates that fit the easier-going glam of the season.
Here, WWD spotlights the resort 2024 eveningwear collections.
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Markarian
The Palm Springs society women Slim Aarons shot in the ’60s would definitely be Markarian customers had the brand existed back then — women like Nelda Linsk and her friend Helen Kaptur, who were shot gabbing over cocktails in his “Poolside Gossip” portrait that was designer Alexandra O’Neill’s jumping-off point this season.
Lifted directly from it, Linsk’s head-to-toe yellow ensemble and Kaptur’s crochet two piece were reimagined as cheerful summer dresses that fit the midcentury hostess vibe. Taking it back to the ’40s, shapelier pieces including a chintzy brocade button-front mini and a peplum-waist blazer with inverted pleats nodded toward Dior’s New Look. “I always go back to that,” O’Neill said, adding, “I think it looks best on on me. It’s what I personally love wearing.”
The designer’s personal preferences also led to a few all-black moments punctuating the daintier floral ones that have become a staple for her. “Whenever we do something, I’m like, ‘let’s do it in black for myself,’” she said.
There was a seductive bias-cut slip and an embellished jersey tunic worn over flared trousers cropped to a mid-calf length. For these, O’Neill was thinking about trans-seasonal dressing. “I really wanted a collection that would have longevity,” she explained, pointing out that either look would be fabulous styled with tights and a white robe coat with silver-foil detailing for the holidays.
Bibhu Mohapatra
During a resort preview, Bibhu Mohapatra let it slip that he’s been talking with a “major” men’s tailoring brand in Naples to consult for their womenswear.
On numerous business travels to the Italian city, he took some time for pleasure, exploring the Giardini La Mortella (Garden of Myrtles) on the nearby island of Ischia. Developed in 1956 by landscape architect Russell Page for the British composer William Walton and his wife Susana, La Mortella is home to a horticultural smorgasbord of plantings from all over the world. Mohapatra described it as “sophisticated, but a little bit wild” — words he also applied to his customer this season.
She’ll wear a hot pink evening blazer with latex leggings: it’s ”youthful, but dressed up,” he said. Or a Renaissance sleeve blouse with a zesty orange miniskirt which, he added “is all about the texture of the fabric” — a pebbled Spanish barathea with a slight sheen picking up on an orchid-like ruff at the hip.
La Mortella’s other flower varieties — poppies, tuberoses and, of course, myrtles — were used for embellishment, like on the top half of a gown with a pleated chiffon sarong washing over the hips like a waterfall. Elsewhere, a curtain of hanging wisteria flowers became sari-style gowns in white and black with wispy fringes at the hem. “It’s really about bringing in the toughness of nature, and then sort of telling a story of how delicate and soft it can be,” he said.
Koltson
For his sophomore collection, Koltson designer Robert Rodriguez looked to sunsets over the Sahara. Asked whether he’s actually witnessed one, he admitted, “It’s a place I’ve never been to, OK, but I’ve always wanted to go.” Rodriguez also wanted to steer clear of the waterside destinations so commonly brought up during resort, a wise choice given he’s building a brand of evening caftans, which could easily skew gimmicky set somewhere like St. Barths.
Of course, a woman doesn’t need to be stranded in the desert to wear one of his layered, scarf-neck iterations in biodegradable chiffon. Completely open on either side, these were styled with black scuba leggings underneath, proving useful whether hopping into a cab or onto a camel. Elsewhere, Rodriguez pushed the caftan silhouette further by joining a pale pink bandeau and miniskirt together with a butterfly-like overlay and draping a cotton men’s shirt to one side for a full-length gown using the buttons to make a slit. These had the clean lines he said buyers from Neiman Marcus and Harrods responded to in his debut.
But the designer really proved his commercial viability when he abandoned the caftan thing altogether. A pair of formfitting black dresses with gold piping curling around the body to mimic sand dunes were much more contemporary.
Rodriguez also stuck by his collaborator, Vicky Barranguet, whose Abstract Expressionist paintings were again made into prints. “I love her so much,” he said. “We worked so well together, creatively that I said, ‘I don’t want to stop.'”
Reem Acra
Reem Acra is finally jumping on the Barbie bandwagon.
With Greta Gerwig’s film adaptation releasing this month, the designer thought pink would be the “It” color this summer and based her entire resort line around it. Looking at the plethora of pink ensembles at King Charles III’s coronation, she joked, “I think we went in the right direction.” To be sure, Acra’s version of Barbie pink isn’t the Pepto Bismol kind. Instead, it’s blushes and nudes used for balletic confections dusted with rhinestones and feathers. Any one of them would be every little girl’s fantasy realized.
Many designers got their start dressing Barbie, but Acra made it clear she did not. “I was the Barbie,” she said, adding that her family’s seamstress would tailor-make dresses for her growing up. Putting herself in the doll’s shoes, she showed some styles that skewed not just younger, but sexier, like a plunging-neck halter gown and a mikado mini with structural draping, which she pegged for her Net-a-porter customer because of its instant digital appeal.
There was also a capsule of little white crepe separates ideal for twentysomething brides to wear for pre-wedding events or civil ceremonies. Shirred tulle ball dresses packed a lot more drama, but were economically minded — one sans train will retail for less than $5,000. In a somewhat ironic twist, Acra used money for embellishment with byzantine-looking coins dangling from the neck of an aqua shimmy dress and matching shrug.
Naeem Khan
Naeem Khan may have just been recognized by the Museum of the City of New York for his design contributions but he’s been spending more time in Miami setting up his new design studio there. The Floridian lifestyle looks good on him, and it showed in a tropical resort lineup big on wearability.
“I think resort is about not being overly embellished,” Khan said, leading him to prints, like a hibiscus floral, which decorated a few baby-doll dresses and beachy cover-ups that would look good on someone lounging on a yacht. Where Khan did use embellishment, the silhouette was kept casual, like on a crewneck minidress with coral reef embroidery and a series of dresses in sequined stretch chiffon that had the same put-on-and-go sensibility of a T-shirt. Thinking about easy glamor, Khan was also drawn to modularity in the form of bib-like tops that can be styled with palazzo pants or faille bubble skirts for a choose-your-own-adventure approach to occasion wear.
Sustainability was this season’s other overarching theme with organic and recycled materials. Khan clarified these aren’t always so easy for him to make elegant, but he did just that with his usual raffia woven in tiers on a dusky blue Empire gown and paper strips resembling the top handles of brown carryout bags, which were strewn into the shape of palm fronds on a tea-length A-line dress.
Pamella Roland
Georgia O’Keeffe’s magnified flower paintings inspired Pamella Roland this season, timing nicely with the artist’s retrospective at MoMA. An abstract minimalist, O’Keeffe clearly differs from Roland’s clientele, who err on the side of maximalism when it comes to decoration — a recent pop-in at Harrods revealed as much. “Seeing what our customer was drawn to really helped confirm that we were on the right track with our latest collection,” she said, referring to the glitzier dresses with marabou feathers and sunburst sequins.
But the strongest ones hewed closer to what O’Keeffe’s version of evening glamor might be, hinged on softly sculpted volumes and watercolor ombrés. These included a puffy single-shoulder cocktail dress in fuchsia taffeta and a mermaid gown with swirls of tulle strips graduating from lilac to plum to black. Tiny gems nestled between each layer could only be seen up-close, but much like an O’Keeffe, the impact was felt at a distance. The artist’s flowers were incorporated more literally on a trio of looks in floral jacquard. The original beading on these was scrapped, making them cost-effective and lighter-looking in the process.
Roland is also incorporating some of the custom designs she’s made for celebrities on the red carpet into her seasonal offering. The halter-neck dress with trailing sleeves worn by Vanessa Williams in April was reintroduced here with the sleeves cut down to cap-length. Williams is a personal friend and wrote the foreword to Roland’s 20th anniversary book by Rizzoli coming out in September.
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