Some designers try to romanticize you. Some refuse to speak. (Make them more stupid, but that’s a story for another time.) Rachel Comey gives you real talk. In appointing the showroom, she broke her pre-fall collection into three themes—work travel, beach escapes, and summer events—and then her team delved into the fibers designed for each. I’ve been in the review business for a long time, and I can’t remember a time when a designer used the term “fibers.” Like her clothes, Kami is down to earth, but she’s also prone to wonder and joy.
Needless to say, most of the fibers in question here had a lot of fluffiness to them since this is the warmest time of year. For the suits, Comey worked with weavers in India on a stained linen, and for the nude dresses, he chose a crinkly cotton-silk blend, a crisp taffeta, and a bouncy foam-like tech fabric. As for the details, there were floral intarsia sets and a stretch eyelet, an old favorite in the new colorways, for an array of swimwear looks. Among bathing suits, the most novel was a long-sleeved one-piece with a slight hem that qualified it as a dress—wear it to the pool, wear it on the street.
With an eye to how her clients really live, she emphasizes rugby-weight cotton separates in cool, roomy shapes. Athleisure Y color block nylon; And printed ripstop cargo pants as well as a matching rain parka. On the accessories front, the tattered raffia bucket hats were really delightful.
