Suno Resort 2015

Review by Maya Sunger
Grounded. That was the word Erin Beatty used to sum up the tone of this season's Suno collection. According to Beatty and partner Max Osterweis, the goal this time out was to create clothing that felt solid and substantial and could operate as a fully functioning wardrobe. There was an emphasis on durable fabrics—denim; a squishy knit; a wool-nylon blend that, shaped into a blush-pink parka, served as the perfect mid-weight, trans-seasonal coat. For all the groundedness, though, there was also a sense of elevation. The excellent denim pieces here were paradigmatic, pairing easygoing shapes with some serious hand-embroidered crystal bling. As Beatty and Osterweis pointed out, they wanted there to be some handwork to all these clothes, something to make them feel personal and special. The denim was the most obvious example of that, alongside a few items in coated terry and in bouclé that also featured eye-catching embroideries. But the strategy was also evidenced more subtly in materials such as the black broderie anglaise with integrated covered stones. This collection boasted a textural richness on par with the richness of pattern and print that's long been a Suno signature. It also found Beatty and Osterweis hewing close to the body—very close, such as in the silhouettes of the fitted knit dresses. And even the oversize pieces didn't feel magnified so much as just slouchy. That was a grounding quality of this lineup as well—the shapes were realistic. The achievement here was that the designers put a little sparkle in the down-to-earth.