“The idea was when you go away, or have been out all day, and come home — you’re sweaty, a little sun-kissed — you get that fresh shower and get ready to go out. So often, we’re in the city running from work to events to dinner to drinks, it was about having a touch base and feeling fresh, clean and sexy before going out again. Your skin is still warm, your hair is still wet and you put on nice clean clothes,” designer Daniella Kallmeyer said during her resort collection preview.
The familiar feeling is quite sensual, as is her ready-to-wear.
For resort, the designer continued to tap into a timeless and elegant feel while peppering in updates to her sell-out silhouettes — noting to have replenished a number of styles for spring and summer, including vests, multiple times at her Orchard Street store. She had fun with it too, offering slightly exaggerated, dressier options, like a standout new viscose twill Le Smoking trouser with a structured blazer, a black-tie worthy vest, or boxy golden cream evening shirt with sleek, roomy deep pocket trousers — talk about that after-sun glow.
The look: Sensually sophisticated.
Quote of note: “When I was designing it, my friend Melanie Dir used to have a perfume [company] called Gamine — when she describes perfume scents they’re so visceral. The one I have from her, she describes as “sex and sunscreen,” she said of the “Sun-drench Mediterranean Sea Moss, Salter Amber and St. Tropez Sand honeysuckle,” scent, which directly informed the season’s palette. “Even though this collection is supposed to transcend seasons and occasion — it can be a vacation in the city, in a mountain house, on the beach, wherever — that smell and feeling of being sexy was part of the inspiration.”
Key pieces: Smocked cotton midi dresses with strappy, crisscross backs and sensual, low-cut armholes; a subtle floral brocade floor-length slip with fisheye darts and tied circular back cutouts (reintroduced from her archive); a pleated and pin-tucked skirt; a slinky backless, polka-dotted disco halter top; myriad sleek suiting and outerwear from day to night.
The takeaway: The visceral feeling of after-dark glow made for a strong Kallmeyer collection.
