Olivier Theyskens - Resort 2019

(Images from Vogue.com and wwd.com and the public domain. All rights. Used in promotion of the designer.)

Olivier Theyskens has revealed his first resort collection for 2019, with the lines blurred in relation to seasonal clothing ranges.  A designer, these days, without responding to expectations can and will set styles at all times with very little reliance on the original seasonal labeling.  As a collection, like Resort, which comes before and after the main seasons.  It is usually the larger fashion houses that will release a newer Spring or Summer range,  before waiting for the next official Spring/Summer season (in this case Femme 2019).  Resort, which is essentially holiday leisure wear seen as a pre-collection, occurs after the Autumn/Winters shows and between the end year Spring collections. Aimed at buyers restocking their future summer clothing, after buying up winter pieces.

Personally, I believe the smaller brands should avoid Resort, concentrating on more significant collections which fit within the traditional seasons.

Semantic labeling and any pedantic observations aside, Theyskens has injected an achromatic resonance into his first Resort collection, which is more akin to vestures which reflect holidays in  a brutalist high rise apartment block over looking the sprawling metropolis below - set in some obscure country.  Rather than clothing attributed to a summer cruise through the Bahamas to escape the Northern Hemisphere winter.  

Vamp and Femme Fatale styles, cold and detached, yet attached to its own narcissism.  In a blissful turmoil of the self.  Olivier Theyskens collection, if I look at it less as a study of technique, but more a reflection of its aesthetics.  Offers a brooding darkness within its divinity of cult appeal.  Which I do find appealing.

Female androgyny overlapping with masculine styles.  Tough, sexy and unyielding.  The rigidity of heavily laden fabrics such as leather, wool, linen with viscose blends maintains Theyskens gothic Resort collection which is mostly set against the Avant-garde contrasts of black and white.