After last season s not wholly successful move onto the catwalk, Jeff, John, and Sam (Josiah s gone north) went back to the tableau vivant format that allows them to create and control a complex narrative for their collection. This one had to do with a French-Canadian couple called the Duboces, scuba-diving adventurers who found a lost Hemingway manuscript in a sunken ship, and… Well, the story continued on, and a Cuban band played, and margaritas were served, and all in all, it was a less-than-typical fashion presentation. Still, what it made clear was how much a Trovata collection needs the weight of narrative to give it heft.
Otherwise, the clothes were a fairly basic J.Crew proposition with a few winsome details: the red stitching on the buttons of a mini-trench, for example, or the signature printed lining in a white linen suit. The seafaring theme made itself felt in raw-hemmed cut-offs and striped tops (couple that theme with the faux family saga, and you ended up with a kind of Gilligan-meets-Lost scenario, with clothes to match). Cabled knitwear showed a new precision, but it was the accessories this trio found that added new layers. Espadrilles by a surfing buddy who designs under the label Toms Shoes and jewelry by Subversive had a louche indolence that suggested a summer misspent by the sea.
