The most substantial details within Self-Portrait’s resort collection were also the smallest: tiny, transparent sequins, scattered across draped tops, and dresses of pale-pink and white lace, which, even on the brightest of summer afternoons, barely flirted with the light. It was a subtle, but significant softening of the Instagrammable sparkle that has underwritten many of the brand’s past collections—and the clothes, in turn, gained a different kind of luster. “I’ve heard a lot of talk about ‘recession dressing,’” said the designer Han Chong during a preview at his headquarters. “And, while I’ll admit that I wasn’t necessarily thinking about that when I was designing, I have felt the vibe shift away from loud glamour, and towards pared-back, investment pieces that people can wear over and over again.”
A pivot towards the timeless and trend-resistant ended up imparting a certain downtown-chic to this season’s looks—evident in the vintage wash of a subtle horseshoe-shaped jean, boyish biker jackets with low-slung belts, little bouclé dresses, and drop-waist maxi skirts and asymmetric out-out tops of silk taffeta. That doesn’t mean there weren’t some big statements in the mix—among them a J.Lo-coded faux-fur jacket and disco-fringed two pieces—more that the whole thing was, for want of a less nebulous term, cool. “It’s light, effortless, and much more contemporary,” added Chong. “The focus was on locating the staples everyone has, or should have, in their wardrobe, and upgrading them.” There were several nods to mid-century design, including swing dresses, cocoon-sleeve coats, and even a Self-Portrait riff on a bar jacket. Classic argyle sweaters were padded at the shoulders, and button-down herringbone dresses at the hips, while detachable cotton-sateen collars extended over the lapels of shift dresses, cardigans, and a squishy leather jacket. “I hope they’ll reflect sunlight onto the face when the collection comes out in fall.”
It’s the kind of thinking you’d expect from a designer as pragmatic as Chong, who really is more interested in meeting his customers where they are than telling them where they should go. Most of this collection, in fact, is built around their future social calendars: tailored, back-to-school mini dresses and side-wrapped cotton skirts; ostrich feather-trimmed LBDs and rhinestone micro skirts for party season; and mandarin-collared shirting, jacquard blouses and epaulet-shouldered denim jackets for when Lunar New Year celebrations kick into gear. (It was particularly nice to see Chong, who is himself of Malaysian Chinese descent, incorporating the architecture of East Asian design, here.) “We usually release a special edit for Chinese New Year, but, this time, I wanted to bring those traditional elements into a broader context. Nothing you see here is outside of familiar territory, but everything is elevated. There’s a lot going on at the moment,” Chong said. “And people just want a little reset.”
