In her time, Madeleine Vionnet was such an arch-modernist that her innovations haunt fashion to this very day, which means Rodolfo Paglialunga faces a peculiar challenge in making Vionnet more contemporary. For Resort, he cleverly took a sporty route, showing tank dresses, T-shirt dresses, and a parka shape with a swallowtail that spoke more of Now than Then. With a form as simple as two circles sewn together and elasticized at the waist, Paglialunga created a silhouette that had the ease of a caftan or a kimono, especially in washed linen as soft as an old sheet. There was, in fact, something very Japanese about that geometry, though it also referenced Vionnet s own manipulation of the square in her work. An ingenious dress whose sleeves folded back for a capelike effect invited movement, perhaps even some kind of interpretive dance. It wasn t hard to imagine Paglialunga s other frocks having just such a result on actress fans like Carey Mulligan, Rachel McAdams, and Marion Cotillard, especially as shown in a shift of dégradé sequins. Too bad Paglialunga s color scheme of browns, beiges, and blue-gray was so dour and un-partylike. The accompanying costume jewelry of ropes and chains, which looked like something found on the beach, was actually much more glamorous than it sounds.
