details: bold structure at Rosie Assoulin Resort 2014

Rosie Assoulin is a young (29) New York designer who has been mentioned more and more in the press in the last year as someone to watch. She researched and interned for several years (and this after helping her jewelry designer mother from 14 on) before her first collections, all built on noticing, decade after decade, patterns of long, floor-brushing pieces, generous volumes of fabric, sashes, and bold solids. The results are clean and sweeping, with an appealing blend of boxy and fitted elements.

Here are some of my favorite looks from her Resort 2014 collection.

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images from rosieassoulin.com

While the concept of a resort collection kind of cracks me up sometimes (a line you would theoretically wear at a resort, or on vacation…or in the summer… but I guess ‘summer’ was already taken in ‘spring/summer’ and these things are immutable), I often like them anyway, if only for their heavy use of white (and other bright colors), of which I approve.

These structures strike me as regal and yet fully modern (if not a bit of the future). Their silhouettes are cousins of silhouettes many centuries old in some cases (sashes with giant, bustle-like bows, trains, floor length skirts, complex draping), but the textures and the complete lack of embellishment are current, and these designs do not read as old-fashioned in anyway to me.

 

into: Erin Wasson for Free People

I enjoy the boho chic Free People aesthetic. I think they do it well, maybe better than any other brand at the moment, and certainly they are consistent.

Their weakness is doing it a little too well; a few too many embellishments and tatters where a rustic simplicity (a garment that feels more authentically vintage and less stylized, which most of these do not) would serve better. This sometimes takes the charm away, I find. They’ve tried to make each item of clothing convey the whole concept (this is more than most garments can handle, I say, though I appreciate the vision) such that many feel ready-made, and so a bit devoid of personality. Like a box cake. Whereas I like bohemian looks best when they feel a bit weird and cobbled together, where any given piece of the ensemble would be, in isolation, relatively unremarkable, and it is the person who imposes a bohemian structure on the elements. [Actually, replace each instance of ‘bohemian’ in that last sentence with any aesthetic, and that’s what I like in the case of that aesthetic.] Some of the pieces are comically expensive, too, given the vibe.

That said, I like a number of their offerings (i.e. some of the simpler tops and dresses, their skinny leggings, and their boot selection), and I really like their most recent campaign [for the March 2014 catalogue] with model Erin Wasson.

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I like her face so much, it’s an appealing combination of delicate, angular, and wholesome (this is maybe just the level brows and the round lips?), with the strange, compelling potential to look almost feral.

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Long, loose dresses, sheer textures, cut-outs, lacing, and plenty of skin peeking through, stacked bracelets, leather, lace, and beading, BOOTS…I’m getting some good ideas here. Her messy-chic hair is great, too.

images via Free People (click link to see the whole campaign)