Slim Aarons romanced Palm Springs like no other. While designing her resort collection, Markarian’s Alexandra O’Neill got caught up in the spell of the photographer’s famous 1970 image, titled Gossip, which depicts a poolside idyll at a Richard Neutra house. The designer’s palette, strong on yellow and greens, was derived from the image, and a white crochet dress with hand-applied details at the hem related to one of the openwork outfits captured on film.
It’s not difficult to see a connection between the festive good life as depicted in Gossip and Markarian’s dressed-up, ladylike aesthetic, captured best here by a New Look–style suit with wonderful seaming details. If you paired the jacket with jeans or the skirt with a tank, say, you could evoke some of the relaxed ease Aarons saw. The designer herself is fond of such dressy/casual mixes and it would be interesting to see that kind of styling in her collections.
Newness at Markarian often comes through fabric selection, as it did again this season. But something else was happening here too: O’Neill evolved some of her signatures in a trio of chic dresses—all short, by the way. A beaded crystal and glass bead sheath with a side slit simplified the dazzle she used for fall, and a silky black dress with pretty streamers and mirror embroidery of disco-ball brilliance built on her use of reflective embellishments, seen in last year’s resort offering. Also striking was the way O’Neill adapted the corset-fit of her best-selling model to a bias-cut body with a draped skirt. There’s a floor-sweeping version in a cherry red floral, but the cocktail-length number is a simpler and strong take on the classic LBD.
