They say inspiration can strike anywhere at any time. For Anna Quan’s resort collection, lightning hit in the unlikeliest of places: a food court. “I was sitting [there] and I saw this skylight water feature that made me feel very calm,” she recalled, laughing backstage after the show. “It was just water bending light and I thought, ‘oh maybe that feels like resort.’”
The opening look, a yellow lace dress with a gathered bodice did indeed have the calming effect of beautiful light. Lace dresses seem to be an Australian favorite—on and off the runway—and that yellow number, along with a couple of white lace beaded pieces that came later, were without a doubt the best expressions of the trend. A colorful print with bold strokes of blues, yellows, and blacks was a fresh interpretation of the light refractions that inspired her, as were the super bright knit separates in electric moss green and peacock blue.
Quan explained that she begins each season by looking at the “unfinished business” from the previous season. “There were some dresses we didn’t get to make, that mixed two different mediums together,” she said. And there they were: a structured strapless dress made from a black Japanese yoru fabric with a metallic thread woven through it that made it glisten in the light with an underlayer in a lighter yoru fabric, and an easy dropped waist dress with a black knitted bodice and a fringed skirt made from strips of black and white polka dotted fabric that danced as the model walked. “From water, we wanted to bring across the idea of gentle movement,” Quan added.
