Is it just us or is Eckhaus Latta suddenly everywhere? A brief fling with J.Crew produced a sold-out rollneck sweater earlier this year and more recently designers Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta teamed up with Mango on a collaboration that gave the Spanish mass retailer a dose of serious street cred. Now here they are on the resort calendar for the first time in their decade-plus career. The appearance, Eckhaus explained, will allow them to be more directional on the runway (New York needs directional design, so this is a good thing). “This,” he said pointing to the colorful racks of pre-spring clothes, “is us thinking about foundational dressing through the lens of Eckhaus Latta, building a wardrobe.”
Naturally, there is denim, in distressed washes and slouchy cuts with side seams that curve around the front giving them a distinctive bowed legs look. And, of course, there are knits, in clingy color-blocked merino wool or looser-fit vividly colored graphic intarsias. Polos and tees, too, are an important part of the mix. The polos are cross-hatched with seams and raw edges that give them a DIY attitude and the t-shirts are snug and crepey and styled in the lookbook to show off their layerability. Some are tagged with EL embroideries on the hip. Their first stab at a brand logo (or the first we can recall), the stitched EL is as subtle and IYKYK as anything this duo has done.