“This collection reflects an intrepid spirit and sense of exploration,” said Carol Lim about the Kenzo resort collection, explaining that she and her design partner, Humberto Leon, are gaining a better understanding of what the woman buying Kenzo really wants. By the looks of this lineup it seems that she’s not only buying prints and colors — as the duo traveled from the busy forest inspiration of fall to a desert storm of sun-bleached fabrics in a palette of white, mineral and military tones. Not that they didn’t work a few prints into the collection, most directly inspired by all things desert: A cactus motif served as cartoonlike dots on nylon Windbreakers, pants and robe dresses or as oversize prints on fluid, filmy dresses; a magnified lunar map print looked like an esoteric version of a camouflage print, and an abstract image of colored grains of sand created a pointillist ombré effect.
The lineup was mainly infused with military and utilitarian shapes and details, with beige sanded satin and soft washed silk versions of safari jackets, tunics, cargo pants and long dresses or skirts finished with industrial metallic snaps and D-ring straps and belts. The freshest were the pristine white cotton and airy mesh pieces, especially the A-line maxidress with snaps and the drop-waist pleated skirt dress worn with strappy flat sandals, some decorated with metallic plastic fringes, and Kenzo’s new “Canyon” bag in supple suede.