Fans of Svetlana Bevza’s eponymous label know the staples: a slinky, ab-revealing dress; a white slip; and a muted color palette. This season’s show, revealed today in New York’s Spring Studios, certainly had those elements, but this time Bevza reached out of her comfort zone just a touch. Sure, there’s plenty of slinking to be done in these clothes, but this time there’s the possibility of doing so in more vibrant colors, specifically turquoise, marigold, and baby pink.
Bevza was inspired by her own archival staples (“We’re copying ourselves,” she said backstage) as well as the ocean. The latter allowed her to experiment with seashell bra tops—very The Little Mermaid—sailor scarves and hats, and wavelike seams adding texture to the body of dresses. The distinctly nautical details were quite obvious; more subtle was the way she used the sea as a jumping-off point to make a statement on sustainability. The boxy necklines of some pieces were meant to resemble plastic shopping bags, for instance, and several of the square patchwork dresses were made from scraps of fabrics in Bevza’s studio. Those frocks were quite appealing: They moved gorgeously when worn and had a subtle complexity that revealed itself the closer you got to the garments.
Another enticing detail was the bralike hook-and-eye closure used on a few of the dresses and long cardigans (you can practically hear the street style stars, who favor this kind of barely held-together cardigan, lining up for these pieces). The closures also appeared as a sexy little touch on some of the sandals. On the whole, this season was preppier than usual for Bevza, especially following last fall’s foray into the groovy ’70s. Beach babes can have their prim sailor tops for day and a turquoise shell bra and low-slung pants for night.
