Change is in the air at Marina Moscone. The designer is walking me through her spring collection when she holds up a pale pink tunic with an assemblage of pearly beads at the chest. “For six years, I would have called this a top. It’s a dress now,” Moscone laughs. (For the record, it’s styled over pants in the lookbook). Moscone designs clothes that appeal to modest fashion plates with an artful eye, and though her hemlines are getting shorter and she’s introducing categories like shoes and homegoods, her target audience hasn’t shifted.
This season, she went a little bit more overtly extravagant than her traditional fare. Her references include the Belle Epoque era, Fortuny pleats, and the work of 1980s sculptor Arch Connelly. The silhouettes sit closer to the body, and some have long slits or short skirts. Dare I say they’re sexy.
The textiles show Moscone’s attention to detail. Another pink midi dress is made of slightly uneven pleats, arranged against the grain. The actual silhouette is rather wearable, but the texture elevates it. Another key fabric is a water-resistant moiré, which appears not only on Moscone’s signature twist capelet, but also as a full-length puffer coat filled with recycled down. A sheer white three-piece skirt, top, and hotpant set is a standout. Made in an irregularly pleated silk organza hand-stamped with a pink flower, it has a delicately crinkled effect, almost like a nightgown.
This season Moscone is producing every garment that appears in the lookbook (save for the vintage brown fur coat from her personal collection). It’s a tight edit that will all eventually be shoppable. And though the clothes feel special (see: the labor-intensive organza), Moscone approaches even her occasion wear with a practical eye. “My goal is always to make clothes that can be open to that interpretation,” she says. “We have clients who read the collection as evening, and others like me who see it as day.” Something for everybody, except for perhaps the Y2K enthusiasts.
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