Yigal Azrouël surfs a lot, and that whole relaxed, just-go-with-it mentality seemed to have put him in a new sartorial mood for Spring. His latest collection was inspired by the early days of surfing, of an idealized notion of endless summers, rolling waves and swaying palm trees. For the last few seasons, Azrouël has been testing the waters with silhouettes that are different from the body-con looks that were his signature, and this successful outing was very wearable.
Azrouël printed palm trees on pajama-style white silk shirts and pants, or embroidered them on fluid plissé trousers and dresses. But this wasn’t the designer pulling a Jeff Spicoli with kitschy prints. Everything was firmly rooted in urbane streetwear. An army green bomber with four diamond-shaped cutouts, teamed with one of these palm tree prints, had the audience snapping pictures. Azrouël kept coming back to the bomber. Amid a parade of nice twill separates in various stripes, it showed up in white-on-white striped silk and black paisley guipure and in the collars and cuffs of airy pink georgette dresses and blouses. It was these more laid-back looks, which walked the line between cool and casual, that worked best, while the black paisley guipure dresses and strict skirts—though pretty—felt like an unrelated idea.