London Resortwear Label SMR Days Gears for Pitti Uomo Debut
LONDON — Life is genuinely a beach for SMR Days, a label born during the pandemic that wants to dress warm-weather travelers and solve the quandary of how to look neat in the heat.
For this small, indie label, the answer lies with a breezy wardrobe of hand-embroidered cotton and linen separates, drawstring silk trousers, caftans and lots of bold print and color inspired by regions such as India, North Africa and South America.
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It offers clothing with Indian bandhani tie-dye techniques; kantha embroidery; ikat weaving, and block printing, and adds details such as coconut, wood or mother-of-pearl buttons.
Despite the restrictions on travel during lockdown, the brand resonated with customers who had either decamped to warmer climes, or were daydreaming about doing so, and wondering what to wear once they landed.
Founders Gautam Rajani, Adam Shapiro and Dan May also wanted to make it easy for customers to pack, which is why the focus is on versatile, season-less items that can be worn a variety of ways.
SMR Days launched mainly as a direct-to-consumer brand, initially with Mr Porter and Matchesfashion. The retail network has since expanded to stores including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Harvey Nichols Dubai, Browns, and Harrods and resort destinations such as Six Senses.
The appeal has broadened, too.
The site’s traffic is now split evenly between men and women, the latter of whom are “tapping into the masculine aesthetic, the oversized shirts, and the laid-back vibe,” said Shapiro. “It’s a men’s brand, but women are wearing some of the pieces, like the Agadir tunic. We’re bullish about the potential for crossover.”
Earlier this year SMR Days unveiled a unisex eyewear collaboration with Prism, creating different colored lenses with marbled frames with names like Ibiza, Saint-Tropez and Mykonos.
For spring 2024 the label is shifting up a gear.
It staged a rooftop presentation during the men’s-focused London showcase last weekend with a collection inspired by May’s long spell in Morocco over the Christmas holiday. He swooned over all the geometric tiles, and found himself wading through a sea of fabric from all over Africa.
The brand will make its Pitti Uomo debut this season with an expanded ready-to-wear and bag offer, as well as a new jewelry collection inspired by the trinkets, bracelets and other adornments that holiday-goers can’t seem to resist.
There is also an expanded eveningwear offer, with silk shirts, jackets and a larger selection of loosely woven separates as well as hand-embroidered and crocheted pieces.
The brand works exclusively with natural fabrics such as cotton, silk, flax and linen. It collaborates with Maison Bengal on the bags, which are roomy, rustic and made of jute. Maison Bengal is a fair-trade company that aims to fight poverty in Bangladesh. It works with mothers and young women, who hand-make the bags using traditional skills and locally grown materials.
Prices range from 195 pounds for a pair of cotton trousers or a T-shirt to 1,200 pounds for the embroidered pieces. The average price point is 350-450 pounds.
Rajani said this season the brand has added more items at the lower, and higher, ends of the range and is planning three drops for the coming season: holiday, summer and high summer.
Shapiro said Pitti presents enormous opportunity for a brand like SMR Days because of all the big events. “Smaller brands do very well around those tentpole moments,” he said.
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