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David Koma\u2019s Blumarine resort begins not with clothes, but with a mood swing. \u201cSummer changes who we are,\u201d he mused. Indeed, this collection feels designed for that vacation-fantasy phase between booking the ticket and boarding the plane, or the yacht, to a beach destination. The Blumarine woman is technically in the city, but psychologically already halfway down the Amalfi Coast, a delicious plate of linguine waiting for her at Nerano\u2019s Lo Scoglio.<\/p>\n
Rather than delivering a parade of resort clich\u00e9s, Koma \u201cdissected the psychology of summer\u201d: the heightened sensuality, the seductive illusion that linen trousers or a skimpy bikini can solve (almost) all of life\u2019s problems. His proposition was less holiday wardrobe and more cinematic, glamorous metamorphosis.<\/p>\n
Classic codes of femininity were filtered through Koma\u2019s sharper, architectural lens. There were slip dresses and floral motifs, but nothing felt sentimental or girly. A tuxedo jacket, tied nonchalantly with a silk scarf, suggested Helmut Newton\u2019s imperious heroine on summer break. A dramatic cape unraveled into cascading fringe, moving with a kind of languid motion, a visual representation of the feeling you get after a lazy day spent sipping spritzes under the expensive capanno<\/em> at Venice\u2019s Excelsior Lido.<\/p>\n In the meantime, bougainvillea bloomed throughout. For Koma, still in the honeymoon phase with the Italian lifestyle, the flower symbolizes the Mediterranean coast in all its overheated romance: salt on tanned skin, and summer flirtations under the ombrelloni best left undocumented. Yet even at its softest, the collection retained an undercurrent of discipline. Koma\u2019s Blumarine runs hot and sultry, but tightly reined.<\/p>\n Then there was Irina Shayk, who embodies the collection with the kind of grown-woman glamour that Koma appreciates. Shayk exudes sex appeal that doesn\u2019t beg for validation. If Newton had ever encountered her, she probably would\u2019ve ended up immortalized in black-and-white in a Blumarine campaign, draped across a banquette somewhere in Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n \u201cI think women want to dress up again,\u201d Koma said, pointing to that phenomenon where the first heatwave transforms cities into open-air catwalks, all bare skin and high drama. Dressing for summer is never merely practical; it\u2019s instinctive, occasionally delusional. When the temperature rises, emotionally or meteorologically, Koma is betting that the wannabe Shayks of the world will turn to Blumarine to get (un)dressed in style.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n