Designer Misha Nonoo has a muse: an English girl, one not much unlike Nonoo herself, who has a bit of wanderlust and a taste for the eclectic. This season, Nonoo s semi-autobiographical design strategy led her back to the tomboyish attitude she recalls from her English boarding school days, and then, less far back, to a trip to Miami Art Basel last year, where she encountered work by James Turrell and Sol LeWitt. The boarding school influence was legible in Nonoo s boxy knits and slouchy trousers, the best of which came in the rather fancy fabrication of silk charmeuse. There was also a schoolgirlishness to the collection s skirts and dresses with kicked-out hems, some of which were elaborated with transparent panels inspired, in part, by Turrell. The artist made for a good reference point—the collection s dégradé stripe print, which was redolent of his work, was a highlight, as were Nonoo s lightweight sweaters, with their windows of sheer microfilament knit.
All in all, the collection had a lot of charm, though you had to wish that Nonoo had infused a little more of its whimsy into her relatively new range of evening dresses and gowns. Apparently, the eveningwear is doing well at sales, but it could do with a bit more idiosyncrasy.
