A fondness for pretty, demure dresses doesn’t mean a buttoned-up character.
Just look at the muses Bernadette and Charlotte de Geyter namechecked for the summer – Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Martha Stewart and Charlotte York of “Sex and the City” fame.
Proper, certainly. Prim, absolutely not – and neither is the Bernadette woman. The Belgian mother-and-duo kicked off their sophomore Paris show with a little “Desperate Housewives” moment with a shirtless gardener, drawing thrilled titters.
Casting back to memories of youthful summers, Bernadette drew on its trademark playbook of easy flattering shapes for a winsome spring collection featuring watercolor floral prints, charming embroideries of blooms, bees and beach finds like seashells.
Maxi-dresses came in every flavor, from printed silk with poet sleeves to spaghetti strap A-lines in seersucker and crisp midnight blue poplin. Organza was cut into t-shirts or kaftans but looked easy either way. Cardigans were styled as eyecatching capelets with their sleeves used as a bow detail on the front. (They could be worn the usual way, too.)
Approachable and easy to read, this should do well with anyone who needs to look polished but not high maintenance. The same went for the matching shoes, the second offering of their newly introduce footwear line.