Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren love a concept. They re not the only ones with the style of the 1940 s on their minds this season, but they ve elaborated on the influence by envisaging a woman who, having entered the workforce while her man was away at the war, has absorbed elements of the breadwinner s wardrobe. This being Resort, she s now feeling out her postwar freedom by the French seaside in emblematic menswear reinterpreted in feminine fabrics like gabardine, cotton drill, and piqué remodeled in silk and viscose. One tweedy-looking topcoat was actually bouclé, and a military poncho and shirt appeared in papery silk. The archness in a Viktor Rolf collection often relates to some cinematic specificity that feels like a private joke—here it was the specter of Joan Crawford hovering over a sundress in black mesh. The designers fetishistic devotion to the bygone era extended to Bakelite details and accessories (the plastic was in vogue in the thirties and forties) and wooden-soled platforms.
