“The inspiration behind this collection came from this moment that I had on the street where I saw someone out of the corner of my eye walking by — I sort of caught what she was wearing and registered it, but then I did a double take and realized it was something completely different,” Joseph Altuzarra explained ahead of his pretty spring salon show, held once again at his brand’s Woolworth Building headquarters. The fleeting image got him thinking about today’s hyper reality and modern surrealism — what’s real and what’s fake, or analogue versus artificial intelligence? 

“That we live in this bizarre, fun house world where we can’t really tell what things are, there was something about that that really attracted me,” he explained of his inspiration, which translated into romantic styles that did indeed require a second look. In a photograph or from afar, his soft, fluid floral silk dresses looked as if they’d been printed but up-close and in motion, were actually appliquéd with 3D laser-cut bonded blooms. The idea of “collaging” these garments stemmed from his kids’ joy of doing arts and crafts, and extended into swishy white lace fringe numbers.

As of late Altuzarra has been offering up strong wardrobing for different characters, and this season he did it through a “fun house mirror,” with ample upturned feather accents adorning easy knits; ladylike separates in quirky mink-looking shearling; exaggerated bonded T-shirts, and surrealist bird motifs that wrapped around the collars of minimal dresses, like vintage scarves and stoles. 

Although many looks upheld his “not always what they seem” mindset, a few classic styles were just as special at face value, like his roomy supple leather funnel jackets, new mini origami clutches, ballooning trousers and a sexy draped white dress with leg slit up to there that nicely contrasted his show-closing naive hula-hoop inspired sheer dresses. 

Since the pandemic Altuzarra said he’s felt more free to experiment with design, and also realized that in this moment, “nothing beats good old customer interaction,” via trunk shows, events and one-on-one appointments. With spring, this balance resonated strongly.