Norma Kamali RTW Spring 2024
Norma Kamali has been busy as of late. She recently took an MIT course on AI, will soon be reinstating her podcast (interviews with Thom Browne, Rick Owens and one of her MIT professors are on the docket) and is getting married this fall, amid designing new collections.
Spring threw Kamali a curve ball — the fabrics she picked out for the season didn’t come in. “Sometimes the universe does you a favor,” she said, finding new inspiration through a stack of her personal denim samples in the office. She photographed the stack and turned it into a collaged graphic print, as seen through a grouping of non-jean jean jackets, dresses, sleeping bag layers, and a new oversized wide, pouf-leg cargo convertible overalls (which was very cool in white vegan leather).
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Her collection followed suit with more groupings of ideas, rather than a cohesive theme. First, a selection of Kamali archive nostalgia, seen through new dot-dash bodysuits and tops; playful fringed party attire; pretty, straightforward occasion dresses; a selection of garments with front and back facing elephant prints (a motif she still wears from past collections), and marbled looks in durable nylon Lycra. There were also core bodysuits and catsuits with magnetized saris (connected at the shoulder) inspired by a trip to India a few years ago, and Western garb influenced by the show “1883.”
“It’s very inspiring,” she said of the show. “I used to tell Minnetonka jackets all through the ’70s, I remember wearing one of the jackets every day, even with velvet gowns. I felt like I need another one of those fringe jackets, and one in ‘1883’ — a gray suede jacket that was so well done.” Her version came ultra-cropped, with fringes around the shoulders and down the arms; great matching boot-leg vegan leather jeans and a “rodeo, Dolly Parton, Miley Cyrus hybrid” look came in the form of a gold lamé shirred skirt and classic white collared shirt with thin bolo-esque tie.
A majority of the collection was made up of Kamali’s personal favorites, which she certainly has a wide customer base for.
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Launch Gallery: Norma Kamali RTW Spring 2024
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