Man, a good soundtrack can be so convincing. The reggae playing at the Sophie Theallet show today was just the thing to lift the spirits on a gray and rainy fashion-week afternoon. It helped that the clothes were pretty ace, too. As Theallet explained, she recently took a trip to Jamaica with a friend, and wound up staying at a place where Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe had once holidayed. And all she had to do with that coincidentally loopy mix of references—Jamaica, dancehall, Marilyn on vacation at her sex-bomb peak—was distill it into the familiar idiom of her clothes. And it worked.
Theallet already gravitates to Monroe-ishness, with her preference for hourglass silhouettes and a come-hither attitude, so the real news here was her play with Rasta colors and tropical motifs. The latter came through via frond-like prints and patterns of knit and lace, while the Rasta shades were all over the place, most memorably in pieces where red, yellow, and green winked through a top layer of black eyelet. Other looks soft-pedaled the reference, like a soigné frock in sparkly yellow tweed, or a beachcombing-suitable gown in gauzy seersucker stripes. But Theallet didn t aim to be coy—she was plainly enjoying herself this season, and nowhere was the sprightly mood more evident than in her rather goofy, dancehall-inspired black silk organza print. The penultimate look was a gown with a frond-lace halter and a full skirt in the dancehall organza: It was simultaneously dead-sexy, magisterial, and a lot of fun. The good vibes were contagious.
