Resort 2025 is the third collection we see from Chemena Kamali at Chloé, and so far we know for a fact that she really has a knack for revisiting and refreshing the maison‘s codes, from Gaby Aghion’s liberating femininity to Stella McCartney and Phoebe Philo’s early 2000s frivolity. For spring, Kamali is taking a closer look at bourgeois chic from Karl Lagerfeld’s era. “There are all these stories to explore that haven’t really been told yet that are part of our history,” she said. This time her mood-board was covered with images of “the Art Deco years of Karl in the 1970s. He furnished the entire apartment he lived in, in Saint Germain, as this Deco masterpiece – everything was in black and gold, and white, cream and gold, and he used to lend it to Vogue and others for shoots. Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton, David Bailey, and Deborah Turbeville all shot there.” The billowing, floating volumes, off-the shoulder dresses, balloon-sleeved blouses, and square-necked smocks in diaphanous coin-dot lamé and swirling, pleated metallic florals swiftly teleport you to these days. But there’s also a breath of contemporary air. The boxer-ballet shoe hybrid wedged sneakers Chloé is launching this season (similar walked in a couple of Hannah McGibbon’s runways). “I wanted something that was soft, feminine, comfortable,” Kamali summed up. “And they had to be real. All the women in the office have been test-wearing them.” Collaged from a myriad soft pastel colors in hi-top and low versions, they look like a Chloé hit in the making. Also worth noting: the reissuing of Square Camera handbag with chain handle from Philo’s winter 2003 collection. Whoever still has it in their wardrobe, lucky you!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!