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Remember when being fully dressed meant wearing clothes not made entirely of spandex? When we changed out of our gym gear when we left the gym? For anyone longing for the days when the tyranny of athleisure hadn’t turned the streets of New York City into a sweaty mess of jog bras and Lycra bike shorts, there is a new capsule collection by Narciso Rodriguez for Zara.
For 25 years, Rodriguez has made the kind of clothes that the pandemic sadly seems to have killed off: minimal sheaths, high-waist trousers, and narrow midi skirts, along with the spiked heel pumps that look best with them. Michelle Obama wore Rodriguez dresses on the campaign trail and in the White House, and the curve-enhancing fit of his evening numbers made loyalists of the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Julianna Margulies, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Since COVID, Rodriguez has been keeping busy with film and television projects, celebrity dressing, and private clients, as well as his über-successful fragrances. His connection to Zara goes back to his days as creative director at the Spanish leather specialist Loewe, circa 2000. “Zara was already really growing quickly, and I developed this great relationship with the [Ortega] family,” he says. “You know, my goal has always been to dress as many women as possible, and Zara does that. I thought this was a great opportunity for me.”
At Zara’s invitation, Rodriguez selected 25 iconic pieces from his archive to reproduce. The resulting collection is not just a testament to the consistency of Rodriguez’s exacting yet sensual vision, but also an antidote to the nylon-Lycra blends that dominate contemporary wardrobes and a reminder of the pleasure that can be had in looking pulled together. “I gave Zara a list of where the fabrics came from, and they contacted all the same mills,” Rodriguez relates. “And if they weren’t able to get the exact same quality, in some cases they got better qualities. The fabric research was impressive.” And because of Zara’s scale, those exclusive fabrics don’t come with the price tags they once did at Rodriguez’s label. The collection ranges from $119 for a strapless wool bustier to $499 for a double-face wool coat.
Even better, he adds, was seeing the old collections through such enthusiastic eyes. “The love of fashion and the knowledge and the excitement for what they do there is really impressive. The young people at Zara know everything that’s going on in the world of fashion and they really enjoy it. I remember that well from my own youth.”
Among the archival pieces he’s revived for the capsule, there’s an embroidered slip dress from the spring 1997 Rodriguez-designed Cerruti show, which took place just days after the designer became a household name for making the wedding dress Carolyn Bessette wore to marry John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1996. There’s also a spring 2018 draped red silk crepe dress whose shape bears more than a passing resemblance—there’s that consistency of vision again—to the charcoal gray Rodriguez-made sheath Kate Moss wore so memorably at Cannes in 1998. The high-waist trousers and harness knit turtleneck in the image below were inspired by collections from the mid-2010s. It might just be time to ditch those exercise clothes after all.
The full Narciso Rodriguez collection is available in Zara stores and online on September 8.
