Lettered Brocade and Lace: Mary Katrantzou's Resort 2015 Collection

Greek fashion designer Mary Katrantzou has written the new chapter in her spring 2015 story, featuring flirty princesses in luxe, lettered brocade and lace.

Following the success of her last fall collection in which she took a step away from her infamous printed fabrics and experimented with embroidery, the sequel of Resort 15 seems to have been spelled out before her. Katrantzou has combined the symbolic power of the written word with elegant embellishment and sky-high hemlines to create affordable pieces that still look runway ready.

Simple long sleeve blouses of lace or brocade balance barely-there belted short shorts, all bearing alphabetic patterns in highly recognizable fonts. From Gothic to 60's art deco and back again, letters appear jumbled in an embossed word salad, or laid out in a lattice pattern, reminiscent of medieval book lettering.  Fitted tunics are stunning over super slim slacks, and all share a riot of color sampled directly from Mother Nature: the palette sings brightly of spring, besotted with intense grass green, lovely demure lilacs and pinks, and assertive blues. 

Mary Katrantzou has expanded her already prolific design vocabulary with Resort 15, using the building blocks of communication as pure graphic devices, retaining the weight of their symbolism without words. The collection is shiny and pretty yet mature, in short, highly wearable couture.