Assembly
Nineties athleticwear and the seventies' sportif stylewere the central themes behind Greg Armas' fourth womenswear collection for Assembly—and from the neon pink "zinc" streaked across his models' visor-sunglasses-masked faces to the zip-front sports bras cum crop tops (some of which were a wee bittoo cropped), there was no mistaking these references. "I remember watching the Olympics as a kid," Armas recalled post-presentation, "and everyone looked amazing. Now we're in New York City, we're running as fast as we can, and I thought about an easy way of dressing that will allow women to quickly change out of one dress and into the next one," he explained. This musing resulted in an abundance of exposed zippers; one ran down the length of a retro tennis dress, which was offered in both red viscose and gray jacquard. Another served as a vent at the hip of a relaxed cherry jumper, and more still appeared across the collarbones of a long-sleeved crop top, a sleeveless white blouse, and a slick pair of viscose navy overalls with thick grosgrain ribbon straps and neon-green-lined pockets. The latter was a clear Spring standout.
Armas' elevated workout aesthetic was most successful in a series of copper pieces. He used metallic cupro to fashion some endlessly cool cropped track pants (which he paired with a light navy and gray viscose-raglan-blend baseball tee) and also applied it as the trim on a wonderfully draped twist top, which he showed with fluid white shorts. Elsewhere, the references were a bit too literal. The designer's yin-yang prints, while very nineties, felt dated, as did some of his neon-accented Sporty Spice-ready jacquard wares.
Some of the best pieces this season drew heavily upon the menswear skills for which Armas is known. A dark gray pinstripe cotton bevel dress will definitely appeal to his city girl on the go, and a fluid white rayon shawl frock with a lapel-detail neckline fused downtown bohemia and power dressing. The rubber-soled white leather crop boots—a collaboration with Mamut—were also a great touch. Armas is on the right track, thinking about functionality and what real women need, but he would be wise to balance that practicality with more of the fantasy that women want.
Phillip Lim got deep into geology this season. And when asked, after his show, what got him so interested in the earth and its elements, thedesigner replied, simply, "standing on solid ground." Hmm. The comment was interesting not only because it was pretty opaque but also because the thing Lim got at really well in this collection wasn't earthen solidity but flux. That was especially true of this season's standout looks, which featured geode-inspired embroidery on organza. Geodes, for those readers who haven't visited a natural history museum in a while, are those rocklike mineral formations that split open to reveal swirls of many-hued crystal; they are a record of a moment of becoming. Lim's embroideries captured that, as did (to a lesser degree) his geode-inspired silk prints. Elsewhere, Lim took on the variegated palette and texture of seemingly monotone landscapes, translating that quality into metal-mottled, patchworked, and pearlized leathers. The pieces themselves never felt obnoxiously literal, though; women are going to like a fluid, knee-length skirt made from contrasting leathers whether they get the backstory or not. And Lim being Lim, there were a ton of garments here that were all about commercial rather than conceptual appeal—to wit, the wide-leg cuffed trousers or the pieces in sherbet-toned jacquard. Lim is an avid explorer; he just chooses to do his exploring close to home. On terra firma, as it were.