Christian Siriano collects—and is inspired by—the work of young Charleston-based painter Teil Duncan, so he asked her to collaborate on a lookbook for Resort. In it, models pose against a wall of Duncan s paintings while she works in the background.
The artist s saturated pastels served as a starting point for Siriano, who said Resort performed so well for him last year that he chose to expand the collection even further for 2014. "There are a lot of options," he said on Thursday at his studio, where Duncan s paintings were still sitting out among the racks of clothes.
The pow! colors made the first impression, then the diversity in silhouette. A painterly floral brocade, done in yellow and green or pink and red, looked best on a dress with a structured top and handkerchief skirt. A long lavender silk dress had a panel of peach pleating attached to one hip, and there was a shorter take on the likable silhouette in magenta and guppy green.
Siriano s oversize palm print in burnout organza worked well on a strapless ball gown with a slightly shorter front, and also on a simple sheath. A few looks could have been deleted from the lineup, particularly a magenta silk shirt with blocks of yellow and green—too loud in an already loud room—and a black-and-white long-sleeve column gown, which had a mountain of appliqués. But Siriano generally seems to understand what his customer wants, and is emboldened to give it to her.
