“We don’t usually answer that question.” That question, posed to Floriana Gavriel backstage before Mansur Gavriel’s second see-now-buy-now spring collection, wasn’t about the company’s financing, June/December shows or whether she and partner Rachel Mansur would dress Melania Trump. It was, “Who is your customer?”
It followed a similarly quizzical exchange: “Tell me about the collection.” “We’re adding wovens such as button-down shirts, lightweight coats, pants, dresses, skirts, tops.”
With Gavriel not sharing and Mansur not there — she gave birth last week — the clothes had to speak for themselves. Luckily, they did. The designers have developed an elegant minimalist aesthetic with clean, unfettered lines, bits of subtle surface interest coming via a few prints and a gauzy grid fabric. The silhouettes radiated casual refinement, and perhaps, some Eighties-Nineties research of the Romeo Gigli (pink shantung pantsuit worn with a sheer skirt) and Zoran (languid tunics over wide pants) genres. While one or two looks veered toward excess maturity, the designers’ highly developed color sense — muted pairings of blush and purple; a russet and lilac combination — prevented crossover. Overall, an exercise in the alluring power of calm.