Resort 2013

Pajamas and athletic gear informed Alber Elbaz as he was designing his Resort 2013 collection for Lanvin — but that doesn't mean his offering this season is any less luxurious than it ever has been. Instead of making garments that simply look casual, Elbaz said he wanted to create clothing that was "as easy to wear as a tracksuit." He achieved this by taking technical fabrics — like parachute silk and materials normally reserved to make bras and space blankets — and forming them into floral print jackets, voluminous skirts and coats, and more than one deconstructed dress cinched at the waist with elastic. Elbaz also placed a new emphasis on handbags, which are shown with many looks in the collection. "I heard that bags are very important in fashion," he said.

For Resort 2013, Phillip Lim looked not to exotic beach locales or sun-drenched vacation destinations. Instead, the designer — and recent CFDA Swarovski Award for Menswear winner — found inspiration much closer to home. "I was sitting in my garden, watching the blooms come out," Lim said. The resulting collection is a breezy mix of Lim's signature functionality and cool modernity — covered in a smattering of lush floral prints. "Flutility," Lim explained. "It's about adding blooms to utilitarian forms." But it's not all roses and hydrangeas: the designer also looked to city maps and aerial urban views for design cues, and thus there are graphic grid prints, laminated skins, and lots of slick black leather to temper all the sweetness.
Photos: Courtesy

Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez said they were focused on "creating product: wearable, salable clothes that girls want" when they designed Proenza Schouler's Resort 2013 collection. Perhaps it's their new found responsibility as store owners — their first boutique will open in New York this July — that has them focusing on less directional offerings. Regardless, these boyfriend jeans, slouchy t-shirts, and relaxed tweed jackets and skirts, are sure to appeal to both loyal fans and new customers alike. Even the multitude of leather pieces — a sleeveless shirt, skirt, and jacket among them — seem designed with a wider customer base in mind.

Rachel Zoe said the woman who will wear her Resort 2013 collection is either "on vacation or she wants to look like she is." And what could look more appropriate for time out of the office than sheer, patterned dresses and sequined party frocks? Zoe offered up examples of each, and rounded out her collection with updated versions of '60s mod dresses, wide-legged trousers, stylized floral prints on shirts and jackets, and suits in a variety of colors from rose to royal blue. Ever the stylist, Zoe paired the garments with luxurious finishing touches, from colorful leather bags to Art Deco-inspired jewelry, oversized sunglasses, and a few well-placed pieces of fur.

The striking interplay of proportion, color, and floral prints in Marc Jacobs's Resort 2013 collection took inspiration from photographer Cindy Sherman's series of clown portraits. But what keeps the collection from venturing too far into circus territory are its '70s prints and sophisticated tailoring. The exaggerated shapes and innovative styling — for example, a below-the-knee dress paired with wide-legged trousers creates the look of one long-sleeved maxi dress — harken back to Jacobs's Fall 2012 collections for Louis Vuitton and his own label. As a result, this collection makes a fitting addition to his growing assortment of very modern classics.

Wearable, well-tailored clothing in rich colors made up the bulk of Christopher Bailey's Resort 2013 collection for Burberry. "We played with textures and prints and wove trench references, sartorial detailing and these little hints of corsetry throughout the evening dresses, suiting and our iconic outerwear," Christopher Bailey, Burberry's chief creative officer explained. To that end, women's trousers feature paper-bag waists and pleating, and the shapes and variations on the house's functional knitwear have an updated spin. The same can be said of the men's selection, which features lightweight suits, seersucker pants, and cotton poplin shirts. But it's the color palette of the collection — which ranges from metallic gold and dusty rose for ladies to royal blue and rich olive for the boys — that give the collection a luxurious depth and feel.

A recent trip to India inspired Roberto Cavalli's Resort 2013 collection for Just Cavalli, which explains why these garments are covered in leopard print and images of exotic flowers. All of the pieces — from a green-and-white full-length gown to baggy shorts and minidresses — are guided by Cavalli's commitment to hip-hop style, but the patterns like alligator skin and Venus flytrap prints keep the ensembles current and fresh. Cavalli's designs succeed just as well in a full-on color as they do in pure white; a few looks created of all-white pieces allow all of Cavalli's ideas to shine through without distracting from one another.

If comedy is the opposite of being ladylike, then Alice Temperley's Resort 2013 collection is as serious as it gets. Temperley took her inspiration from enduring beauties like Sophia Loren and the style of women in the South of France in the '50s and '60s. The result is a restrained collection of demure classics. Dresses in bright red, cream, black, and blue jewel tones are nipped in at the waist in a nod to the New Look and are accented with grosgain ribbon and starfish brooches. The evening gowns in the collection show off a little leg with an emphasis on soft draping. But a masculine white suit — featuring a double-breasted jacket with wide-leg pants — is perhaps the garment that best summarizes this collection's traditional bent: cool, classic, and timeless.

Rachel Roy combined artist Sonia Delaunay's use of color with modernized versions of shapes from the '60s to create a striking Resort 2013 collection. Roy said she "wanted to create form through color," and she accomplished that through colorblocking and mixing black-and-white geometric patterns. Bright yellow is featured heavily in the line, and royal blue, cream, orange, and teal play well with each other, often in the same ensemble. "The collection embodies rhythm and movement by juxtaposing colors, textures and mixing feminine and masculine details that are my signature details," Roy said.

For Resort 2013, Erdem Moralioglu kept the focus on his house's signature prints and ladylike silhouettes, offering up '60s-inspired shift dresses, full-cut skirts, and prim blouses in a blue-toned palette of floral and lace. For texture — and a bit of the transitional feeling so essential to the season — there were slim cable-knit sweaters and frayed-edge tweeds, plus one very welcome new addition: swimwear.