BCBG Max Azria Resort 2015

Review by Lauren Sherman
Max Azria was born in the port city of Sfax, Tunisia, and he was recently honored at that country's fashion week, where he staged a show celebrating BCBG Max Azria's 25th anniversary. So it was fitting that Resort was all about Azria's Tunisian heritage. "I can almost smell the jasmine in here," said Lubov Azria, the brand's chief creative officer, amid the scarf skirts, embroidered tunics, and capes inspired by Hammamet, the beachside town where Elsa Schiaparelli owned a home and Paul Klee painted.

Conveniently for the Azrias, the look of Hammamet is on trend right now. (Walk into just about any clothing store this summer and you're bound to find a piece—or several—fashioned out of those inexplicably irresistible hammam towels.) The most energized BCBG styles mixed the old and new. "I love a woman in a man's shirt," Lubov said of a collarless blue style, embroidered with white thread on the front and worn with an ivory faux-wrap skirt. A cape was done in engineering stripes; blue banker stripes were mixed with floral motifs on a tunic dress; and yes, the hammam towel was well represented. Topstitching on a white, double-face cotton shell and skirt gave the set texture, which Azria is craving right now. "It's so easy to do flat," she said.

BCBG is best at capturing a moment in fashion and making it wearable for the rest of us. It just so happens that this moment has a lot of meaning for the Azrias. Maybe that's why this collection worked so well.