“I felt like everything has been so restrained, and that’s what the brand is anyways, but also, I wasn’t making a lot of room for joy at the end,” Brandon Maxwell said during a preview of his resort collection. The luxury designer was referring to his beautiful, controlled previous collections, which he designed while working through personal loss. Approaching his resort lineup, he wanted to bring forth elements of optimism, which he did in a strong way while balancing sobriety across the brand’s timeless, chic codes.
Aside from a select number of his effortless occasion fare — a baby yellow “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” gown — most of the collection leaned into daywear. A nod to his growing direct-to-consumer business and aim to offer customers more options for everyday wardrobing — with playful touches and intriguing textures.
The collection opened with a four-pocket black jacket (also in a cool blue acid-wash denim print) with little hand-hammered brass “rage” buttons, belted with a hand-molded and -poured heart-shaped belt buckle coated in 18-karat gold. There were easy summer dresses, including a chic tunic, in white silk (that read like cotton) with little polka dots, and a strong new selection of 100 percent recycled cashmere knits designed with Ryan Roche.
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“I think that is what has made the brand work, in its austerity is that there’s joy infused in it — and fun, whimsy and a little bit not so, ‘on the nose,’” Maxwell said, noting the collection’s myriad fabric developments felt especially good this season, as did nods to his Texan roots.
A selection of Swarovski crystal-accented lace and organza fashions, like hybrid plaid and acid-wash denim printed linen and cotton western shirt atop a matching sheer-hemmed, crystalized skirt, exemplified the idea. Ditto a gilded laminated silk lightweight coat, and overprinted and embossed leather snakeskin prints and deep reddish brown crinkle leather (which started out as a cotton that was lacquered and patinaed over time) on straight-leg jeans and sleek jackets.
“What I tried to give in the beginning was a very simplistic, beautiful fabrication and I tried to mold the clothes into shapes and ways that were very special. What I’ve tried to do now is do that same thing through fabrications in more democratic, wearable silhouettes,” Maxwell said.
His resort collection nicely rounded out this approach with plenty of eye catching looks for day and night.
