Talks of a spending pullback on luxury fashion within the U.S. haven’t quite dimmed the eveningwear market’s sparkle, however it did have designers considering ways to stretch a dollar for resort, with an emphasis on lighter fabrics, prints over embellishment and mix-and-match separates that fit the easier-going glam of the season.

Here, WWD spotlights the resort 2024 eveningwear collections.

Markarian

The Palm Springs society women Slim Aarons shot within the ’60s would definitely be Markarian customers had the brand existed back then — women like Nelda Linsk and her friend Helen Kaptur, who were shot gabbing over cocktails in his “Poolside Gossip” portrait that was designer Alexandra O’Neill’s jumping-off point this season. 

Lifted directly from it, Linsk’s head-to-toe yellow ensemble and Kaptur’s crochet two piece were reimagined as cheerful summer dresses that fit the midcentury hostess vibe. Taking it back to the ’40s, shapelier pieces including a chintzy brocade button-front mini and a peplum-waist blazer with inverted pleats nodded toward Dior’s Recent Look. “I all the time return to that,” O’Neill said, adding, “I feel it looks best on on me. It’s what I personally love wearing.”

The designer’s personal preferences also led to just a few all-black moments punctuating the daintier floral ones which have grow to be a staple for her. “Each time we do something, I’m like, ‘let’s do it in black for myself,’” she said.

There was a seductive bias-cut slip and an embellished jersey tunic worn over flared trousers cropped to a mid-calf length. For these, O’Neill was enthusiastic about trans-seasonal dressing. “I actually wanted a group that will have longevity,” she explained, stating that either look could be fabulous styled with tights and a white robe coat with silver-foil detailing for the vacations.

Bibhu Mohapatra

During a resort preview, Bibhu Mohapatra let it slip that he’s been talking with a “major” men’s tailoring brand in Naples to seek the advice of for his or her womenswear. 

On quite a few business travels to the Italian city, he took a while for pleasure, exploring the Giardini La Mortella (Garden of Myrtles) on the nearby island of Ischia. Developed in 1956 by landscape architect Russell Page for the British composer William Walton and his wife Susana, La Mortella is home to a horticultural smorgasbord of plantings from everywhere in the world. Mohapatra described it as “sophisticated, but a little bit bit wild” — words he also applied to his customer this season. 

She’ll wear a hot pink evening blazer with latex leggings: it’s ”youthful, but dressed up,” he said. Or a Renaissance sleeve shirt with a zesty orange miniskirt which, he added “is all concerning the texture of the material” — a pebbled Spanish barathea with a slight sheen picking up on an orchid-like ruff on the hip.

La Mortella’s other flower varieties — poppies, tuberoses and, after all, myrtles — were used for embellishment, like on the highest half of a gown with a pleated chiffon sarong washing over the hips like a waterfall. Elsewhere, a curtain of hanging wisteria flowers became sari-style gowns in white and black with wispy fringes on the hem. “It’s really about bringing within the toughness of nature, after which kind of telling a story of how delicate and soft it might be,” he said. 

Koltson

For his sophomore collection, Koltson designer Robert Rodriguez looked to sunsets over the Sahara. Asked whether he’s actually witnessed one, he admitted, “It’s a spot I’ve never been to, OK, but I’ve all the time desired to go.” Rodriguez also desired to avoid the waterside destinations so commonly brought up during resort, a clever alternative given he’s constructing a brand of evening caftans, which could easily skew gimmicky set somewhere like St. Barths.

After all, a girl doesn’t must be stranded within the desert to wear considered one of his layered, scarf-neck iterations in biodegradable chiffon. Completely open on either side, these were styled with black scuba leggings underneath, proving useful whether hopping right into a cab or onto a camel. Elsewhere, Rodriguez pushed the caftan silhouette further by joining a pale pink bandeau and miniskirt along with a butterfly-like overlay and draping a cotton men’s shirt to 1 side for a full-length gown using the buttons to make a slit. These had the clean lines he said buyers from Neiman Marcus and Harrods responded to in his debut.

However the designer really proved his industrial viability when he abandoned the caftan thing altogether. A pair of formfitting black dresses with gold piping curling across the body to mimic sand dunes were way more contemporary.  

Rodriguez also stuck by his collaborator, Vicky Barranguet, whose Abstract Expressionist paintings were again made into prints. “I really like her a lot,” he said. “We worked so well together, creatively that I said, ‘I don’t need to stop.’”

Reem Acra

Reem Acra is finally jumping on the Barbie bandwagon. 

With Greta Gerwig’s film adaptation releasing this month, the designer thought pink could be the “It” color this summer and based her entire resort line around it. Taking a look at the plethora of pink ensembles at King Charles III’s coronation, she joked, “I feel we went in the appropriate direction.” To make certain, Acra’s version of Barbie pink isn’t the Pepto Bismol kind. As a substitute, it’s blushes and nudes used for balletic confections dusted with rhinestones and feathers. Any considered one of them could be every little girl’s fantasy realized. 

Many designers got their start dressing Barbie, but Acra made it clear she didn’t. “I used to be the Barbie,” she said, adding that her family’s seamstress would tailor-make dresses for her growing up. Putting herself within the doll’s shoes, she showed some styles that skewed not only younger, but sexier, like a plunging-neck halter gown and a mikado mini with structural draping, which she pegged for her Net-a-porter customer due to its quick digital appeal. 

There was also a capsule of little white crepe separates ideal for twentysomething brides to wear for pre-wedding events or civil ceremonies. Shirred tulle ball dresses packed quite a bit more drama, but were economically minded — one sans train will retail for lower than $5,000. In a somewhat ironic twist, Acra used money for embellishment with byzantine-looking coins dangling from the neck of an aqua shimmy dress and matching shrug.  

Naeem Khan

Naeem Khan could have just been recognized by the Museum of the City of Recent York for his design contributions but he’s been spending more time in Miami establishing his latest design studio there. The Floridian lifestyle looks good on him, and it showed in a tropical resort lineup big on wearability.

“I feel resort is about not being overly embellished,” Khan said, leading him to prints, like a hibiscus floral, which decorated just a few baby-doll dresses and beachy cover-ups that will look good on someone lounging on a yacht. Where Khan did use embellishment, the silhouette was kept casual, like on a crewneck minidress with coral reef embroidery and a series of dresses in sequined stretch chiffon that had the identical put-on-and-go sensibility of a T-shirt. Excited about easy glamor, Khan was also drawn to modularity in the shape of bib-like tops that could be styled with palazzo pants or faille bubble skirts for a choose-your-own-adventure approach to occasion wear. 

Sustainability was this season’s other overarching theme with organic and recycled materials. Khan clarified these aren’t all the time really easy for him to make elegant, but he did just that together with his usual raffia woven in tiers on a dusky blue Empire gown and paper strips resembling the highest handles of brown carryout bags, which were strewn into the form of palm fronds on a tea-length A-line dress.

Pamella Roland

Georgia O’Keeffe’s magnified flower paintings inspired Pamella Roland this season, timing nicely with the artist’s retrospective at MoMA. An abstract minimalist, O’Keeffe clearly differs from Roland’s clientele, who err on the side of maximalism in relation to decoration — a recent pop-in at Harrods revealed as much. “Seeing what our customer was drawn to essentially helped confirm that we were on the appropriate track with our latest collection,” she said, referring to the glitzier dresses with marabou feathers and sunburst sequins.

However the strongest ones hewed closer to what O’Keeffe’s version of evening glamor is likely to be, hinged on softly sculpted volumes and watercolor ombrés. These included a puffy single-shoulder cocktail dress in fuchsia taffeta and a mermaid gown with swirls of tulle strips graduating from lilac to plum to black. Tiny gems nestled between each layer could only be seen up-close, but very like an O’Keeffe, the impact was felt at a distance. The artist’s flowers were incorporated more literally on a trio of looks in floral jacquard. The unique beading on these was scrapped, making them cost-effective and lighter-looking in the method.

Roland can be incorporating a few of the custom designs she’s made for celebrities on the red carpet into her seasonal offering. The halter-neck dress with trailing sleeves worn by Vanessa Williams in April was reintroduced here with the sleeves cut all the way down to cap-length. Williams is a private friend and wrote the foreword to Roland’s twentieth anniversary book by Rizzoli coming out in September.