36 DEPARTURES STYLE
36 DEPARTURES STYLE RESORT WEAR THE END OF summer in the northern hemisphere is when many fly south. And this is when resort wear lands. Appearing in stores after the winter collections and before spring, it’s intended largely for yachts and beaches. The aesthetic can be hot and bold, but there are also always knits and tailored pieces intended to freshen up shopfloors in wintry London, Paris and Milan. Over the summer, Dries Van Noten’s Antwerp flagship store had racks full of flowing men’s tunic shirts that mixed cheetah-print blocks with panels of typography and bright pink. Dries Van Noten was inspired by the massively influential 1980s London stylist Ray Petri, who mixed feminine styling tropes of skirts with boxing gear, and sportswear with tailoring long before it was the norm. That flamboyance – perfect for the tropics – continued this season, with silksatin blazers and floral-print poplin shirts. Designer Jasper Toron, who launched Toron Studio after stints at Givenchy and Burberry, is a kindred spirit. His new collection is what you’d imagine someone wearing in Beverly Hills or Miami as they roam around the debris of a two-day party on a sweltering morning, eyes hidden behind giant shades. It’s a little bit 1970s Elton John but feels future-leaning, too – the kind of thing everyone would be in if there was a beach club in Wakanda. While Paris and Milan are the hubs for international style, the focus for resort wear is the horizon. It is African, Indian, South American and beyond. “We have more and more customers who enjoy the broader global influences inherent in brands such as Bode and Harago,” says Andrea Burbi, buyer at Luisaviaroma. “They often use crochet in their playful designs. Those who like print are drawn to Amiri and Casablanca.” Florals are a perennial in resort wear, and this year’s Moschino collection put a distinctive and quirky version – mixing petals from doodles with photo prints – across skewed-neck shirts, with and without sleeves, and sheer tops. London-based Toron says his work is inherently resort wear. “It was developed from a desire to create clothes that embody the extravagance and hedonistic escapism of a holiday wardrobe,” he says. “It’s when men can be more daring.” Toron was inspired by Noël Coward’s dressing gowns and the artist Julian Schnabel, who wears his favourite pyjamas at formal events as well as to paint in. Toron has been working with Lake Como-based print house Ratti on graphics, inspired by Art Deco, Danish Neoclassicism, ancient Greek vases, The Bloomsbury set and the costumes of the Ballets Russes. Creating clothes for 24/7 leisure gives designers an opportunity to freewheel. For the Dior men’s resort collection this year, Kim Jones took the same reference point as Dries Van Noten did for summer – Ray Petri’s so-called “Buffalo” style, which plundered subculture and launched a thousand nightclub looks. He focused on the silhouettes that Petri created, more than relying on print. Clockwise from far left: Dries Van Noten cotton-polyester jacket, polyester top and cotton trousers, driesvannoten.com; Toron Studio organic-silk Artemis tunic and Sebastian trousers, toron.studio; Orlebar Brown capri-collar Hibbert shirt, orlebarbrown.com; Vilebrequin x Highsnobiety linen 360 Landscape bowling shirt, vilebrequin.com; Frescobol Carioca FC Monograma swim shorts, frescobolcarioca.com CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: © TORON STUDIO, © ORLEBAR BROWN, © VILEBREQUIN, © FRESCOBOL CARIOCA
FROM LEFT: JACKIE NICKERSON, IOANNIS KOUSERTARI, © MARRAKSHI LIFE From far left: Dior virgin-wool and cotton-twill jacket and trousers; cashmere and jersey boatneck with removable bandana, dior.com; Moschino cotton shirt and trousers; flower-print collar and cummerbund, moschino.com; Marrakshi Life Stripe 25 T-shirt dress in handwoven cotton, marrakshilife.com There are androgynous grey suits, berets, and the most Petri move of all – shorts with half-kilts on them. Worn with DM-style boots and an update of the MA1-cut satin flight jacket that was ubiquitous in clubland in the 1980s, it looks fresh and modern. The pale-blue blazers aren’t beachwear, but are perfect for dinner in St Barths. Many designers must have had four-decade-old tearsheets from The Face on their mood boards this season. Thom Browne, who twisted and contorted his classic grey suit in all manner of new ways for his first couture show this year in Paris, also showed men in skirts-over-trousers for his resort collection. He mixed layers of tailoring with sportswear, with a mix of unlikely textile patterns. While Browne’s collection isn’t quite deconstruction, he experimented with pieces that look as if they’d been turned inside out – another 1980s styling move. The result was fun and upbeat: plaid orange suits served as a perfect sunshine foil to his usual business grey. The four-striped motif which has become a Browne trademark (despite a curious and predictably failed legal challenge from Adidas at the start of the year), appeared in different textures in horizontal bands across the single legs of a shorts suit, and on sorbet-coloured jackets and matching socks. The bulk of the resort collections at Dior and Thom Browne are a little heavy for hot weather. One brand that continues to focus solely on how to dress in high temperatures is Marrakshi Life. The Marrakesh-based brand launched in 2013 and has just released its 14th collection entitled, prosaically as ever, Collection 14. All its clothing is made to order by its 40 artisan weavers and 25 local tailors. Marrakshi Life has recontextualised the caftan for men – if you like the overlength shirts of Yohji and Rick Owens, it’s a label for you. “Any given day, as you walk the streets of Marrakech, you will find humans wearing traditional djellaba, abaya and pyjamas,” says Nicholas Minucciani, who joined the brand founded by fashion photographer Randall Bachner in 2019. “We took this as inspiration and combined it with our aesthetic of the Western world, as we are both from New York. Our pieces are becoming staples for men who style a caftan with a pair of baggy denim or oversized trousers. Our New Yorkers love it when we present collections in black and white, while California and Middle East customers love our colourful palettes.” Sometimes resort wear is just about the perfect combo of towelling shirt and swimming trunks. Most men have their go-to brand. Vilebrequin is the default for many, for bright graphic shorts and simple polo shirts. Frescobol Carioca’s signature collection shows off its palm-fringed Rio roots through a recurrent use of the wave pattern of Roberto Burle Marx’s 1970 mosaic promenade that runs along the seafront at Copacabana, and its similarly graphic neighbour at nearby Ipanema. Orlebar Brown has, arguably, become the king of the poolside look. Co-founder Adam Brown works with artists as well as archives of wallcoverings and fabric swatches to develop new prints for product. As for what he’s looking to achieve with the brand, it’s defined by what he calls his pre-holiday mantra: “Light, bright and breezy – light, because I never take more luggage than I need to; bright, because a dull colour makes a dull outfit; and breezy, in that holidays are a chance to celebrate print, and prints lift the spirits.” 37 DEPARTURES
