There’s precise, and then there’s Alexander Lewis-inspiration precise—a collection based on an imagined moment: “I always focus on a situation as opposed to a season. So for me, for this situation, I wanted to go back to Brazil. A woman has just taken a dance workshop taught by Aya Sato and Bambi at the Sesc Pompéia in São Paulo. She’s leaving; it’s the magic hour: She’s on her way home to meet her girlfriends at her Isay Winfeld apartment. She has sweat on her body, glistening. Endorphins are rushing through her. She’s living. After this incredible dance workshop. And it’s Tuesday night, a week before New Year’s Eve.”
So the wood-grain print, concrete jacquards, and building-block appliqués spoke of Winfeld’s and the Sesc Pompéia’s architecture, and the palm print of the view through its sky bridges. The shorts, skorts, and shorts disguised as silk cady four-slit dresses—or worn above attached-netting pants—muttered of Lewis’ take on Sato and Bambi’s functional, fluidly layered, hard-core dance gear. The white looks, fishtail hems, and appliquéd mermaid dress were anticipatory of Lewis’ sweat-drenched girl’s New Year’s Eve to come. In Brazil, he explained, you wear white on the night and, if possible, head for the beach to jump seven waves in order to honor the goddess Yemaya. Not everything here was so closely spoored to Lewis’ story: Peplumed linen tank tops and piped linen cross-body beach cover-ups were some of the more resort-y Resort items. A white jacquard shot through with holographic, rainbow-flash yarn was meant simply to cast light on the wearer’s face.
Evoking such a precise moment might seem overly particular, but it’s a practice with tangible results. The thoroughness of Lewis’ imaginative narrative translated into a collection just as finely drawn.
