What you will find walking in Norma Kamali’s office is an army of mannequins dressed in new season clothes. What you won’t find is a moodboard. “The collection for me never starts with ‘This is what I’m going to do,’ because you can’t be creative if you’re stuck with something,” the designer said. “You’ve got to let it take you.” This was her way of explaining that the Western elements in her collection—including a cow print and fringed “suede”— were not premeditated. If there was an organizing principle for her resort collection, it was color—specifically a rich, rusty brown she called foxtrot, avocado green, and toffee, all of which she explored in their many variations.
What Kamali was imagining was what would happen if “you throw a whole bunch of clothes together and then pick out three, [and] that’s the perfect outfit. You don’t plan that this goes with this and that doesn’t.” The effortless modularity comes from the complementary tones and the fact that almost everything in this collection is interchangeable. So a luxe, tunic-length velvet hoodie with a mesh skirt might look like a dress, but they are, in fact, separates. Ever the pragmaticist, Kamali has taken mix-and-match to the next level here.
That said, the one-pieces do go the extra distance. Once again demonstrating the longevity of good design, Kamali reworked a jumpsuit silhouette favored by Bianca Jagger, now topping basque-waisted and gathered balloon pants with a sleek turtleneck rather than a halter (look 37). “It’s sexy, but it’s actually covered up,” she said. Surprisingly, the same can be said for one of the skimpiest pieces in the lineup (look 63). What looks like a micromini is actually the best-selling Bill. “That was my first swimsuit, and it’s named after my brother,” Kamali explained. In the Studio 54 days, she related, “girls would wear the Bill and the halter Bill dancing. You’d sweat in it, but you were in a swimsuit, so it was perfect; and it has a panty, it’s like shorts.”
Kamali puts her talents not only into design but into solving her customers’ needs: “It’s like how can you be practical and smart but make it fun?” she mused. With Kamali, you don’t have to choose.
