Norma Kamali has always cast a wide net when it comes to fashion; she was an early adopter at the intersection of sport and ready-to-wear, and a fitness pioneer. It’s not just her clothes.
This season Kamali is thinking about the why of things. “We talk a lot about excess product, we talk a lot about what we’re doing wrong [as an industry]. I think we’ll be doing more things right if we understand what our purpose is. What we should be doing What’s the job here? … We forget that the purpose is to make fashion fun and memorable, to make it matter to people,” she said in her showroom. “If we create collections that aren’t just for each other in the industry, but that actually change how people feel, I think the industry will have a better time figuring out what to do with all the products.”
Kamali promotes fashion as a form of wellbeing. “Therapy is great — and I have nothing against it — but sometimes we need to do it ourselves,” the designer notes. While the resort collection is primarily presented in black, white and gray (with silver and red lenses), it delivers a dopamine rush. A motorcycle with reflective material? Yes, please! Ditto for the ombré sleeping bag jacket and slinky black stretch dress with a hood and open back.
Duvet tops aside, Kamali favors body-conscious looks. Stealth wealth may be catching on online, but in real life, the appearance of daring to be naked continues to reign supreme. Kamali expressed this in various ways, even bringing back her peek-a-boo embellished dresses in opaque circles and rectangles artfully placed on mesh. Kamali is playing her game.
