BL8K

After two years of virtual and social distance fashion, the SS23 shows are officially back and better than they have been before. Fashion month in September and February presented hundreds of collections from all four fashion capitals and pieces from different collections were displayed on our favorite celebrities at events, such as the Grammys, Oscars, and Billboard Music Awards. Being kept from a physical runway, Resort Shows have been digital for the past two years but have made their first physical appearance since 2019. From Chanel to Louis Vuitton to Area and Coperni, each resort collection displays upcoming trends, like linen pants, tweed, and classic denim. The resort collections all have a deeper and inspirational meaning behind the pieces, whether drawing inspiration from personal lives, to places, people, or nature, each collection provides unique pieces.

Sacai

After her Paris haute couture debut, creative director Chitose Abe is back home in Tokyo. The designer presented a one-off Jean Paul Gaultier collection, the first of that brand’s new partnership projects. She called it an “intimate, more friendly proposal” than the other collaborations with Dior Men’s and Nike. Her latest Sacai collection for men and women features another partnership, with the German streetwear label ACRONYM, specializing in technical outerwear, often in monochrome. For Abe, the collection yielded a series of camel separates made with an unlikely combination of satin and raincoat fabric. She paired a cozy buffalo plaid sweater with a buffalo plaid chiffon maxi skirt, and cut a chesterfield coat in white chiffon applique in a bandana pattern. The men’s collection had a more expeditionary spirit, with an emphasis on jackets and vests that could do double duty on the street or at the campsite—an active lifestyle means different things to different people. Chitose had the collections shot on the streets of Paris.

Christian Dior

During lockdown, creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri looked towards movement as an escape and a point of freedom. “Sport is movement, sport is freedom. During lockdown, you would walk around your building just to get a sense of moving your body. That became our idea of freedom,” she said on a video call from Athens. (Vogue). Her confinement reflections took the Dior Cruise show to the birthplace of sports: the Panatheniac stadium in Athens. “I decided to show here because I’m interested in clothes as a way of giving freedom of movement,” (Vogue). In her study of sportswear, clean, cream activewear walked the stadium’s 185-meter laps, occasionally interrupted by sweats elevated with abstract prints. Chiuri paid homage to Marlene Dietrich’s white suit, a reference prompted by an old photograph of the icon dressed up as Leda. Chiuri reconstructed Christian Dior’s old pieces by removing its lining and sportifying its fabrication. Adapting sport-like fabrics and cuts into our everyday wardrobes was the goal for the collection. At the Panathenaic Stadium she found the most authentic stage to examine just why she loves this most original garment—the mother of all dresses—so much. With the destination show, she found community collaborations that traditionally weaved their way into the show, inviting a group of local artisans to work on the collection. The tailor Aristeidis Tzonevraki created a Book Tote and a Bar Jacket using a unique method through which the items are structured by way of embroidery. The Soufli-based factory Silk Line interpreted Dior’s houndstooth in silk leggings and shorts using its signature jacquard loom. And Atelier Tsalavoutas Dior-ified caps worn by the fishermen of Hydra since the 19th century.

Area

“It’s about femininity in all its forms,” said Area’s Piotrek Panszczyk from the brand’s massive new studio on the Bowery. “From hard-core sex kitten to something daintier with pink, daisies, and crystals.” (Vogue). The collection (which consists of nearly 100 pieces) spans lacy lingerie dotted with crystal bows, chic ivory suiting dangling with crystal fringe, and kitschy denim with massive brass studs. Drama, present within the collection, is nothing new to Area’s hyper-realized glamour. Parties, clubbing, events, are many this season, and with Area creating its own lace from crystal patterns, drawing inspiration from medieval armor for giant studded leather bows and bustiers, and ingeniously embellishing a black minidress with bright red press-on nails for a “rhinestoned at the nail salon” bit of camp. Denim adds to the label’s ready-to-wear expansion, as do its platform clogs and square-toed mules, now adorned with sweet little daisy charms. With the collection landing on Area’s e-commerce site, it seems like only a matter of time before bombshells from Miami to Macau start trying out the brand’s new femininity.