On a breezy night in Brooklyn, New York, Rosie Assoulin debuted her 10-year anniversary resort collection. To celebrate the anniversary, the designer hosted a night of food by Habibi and drinks by her natural wine company, Vivanterre, and Ghia, a non-alcoholic aperitif, on the rooftop of the future SAA by Palm Heights development. Her models donned resort collection looks while standing in an empty pool (a homage to her spring 2016 collection presentation). The event, and collection itself, offered the quintessential, optimistic resort getaway feel that’s a signature of her brand.
“When you think about something like 10 years, you’re definitely looking back in a way that you didn’t before. ‘What was our reason for being? What are we doing?’ It weirdly also became a reflection on the creative process itself. It went from these sort of abstract nuanced lines to getting really into stripes, angles and precision,” she said, adding, “It still feels true today. When I think of nostalgia, I think of something that I’m no longer yearning for; this weirdly feels like it’s a return to what we essentially love about this process.”
Across 36 looks, Assoulin touched on all the hits of her archive, while expanding on it with new styles. There were signature surf-short-inspired trousers; sharp matching sets and dresses with angular, refined points in her favorite “ying/yang” double faced black and white twills (including a stellar cat-eye gown atop black trousers); a trapunto stitched brown drop-waist number, and a delightful seersucker gingham frock in pink and orange. In addition to a good amount of colorful, nautical striped dressing, Assoulin noted she was inspired by flow and water.
“The agony sometimes of the creative process — you end up somewhere, it’s not always where you think you’re going to get. There’s a wonderful thing that happens when you’re really in the flow, so water felt very important to us,” she said of the collection’s waterscape “skinny dipping” prints, as seen on a fluid button-down worn with a floor-length skirt.
“We’re returning to that exploration of play and discovery,” she added of the colorful Rorschach-esque printed dresses, which made their first appearance in her debut resort collection.
Though cheeky, colorful, feel-good fashion, Assoulin’s creative process delivered a full-circle collection in the best way.
Reports /TrainViral/
