The Tamesis
David Koma’s Blumarine resort doesn’t start with clothes, but with mood swings. “Summer changes us,” he mused. In fact, the collection feels like it was designed for the vacation fantasy stage between booking a flight and boarding a plane or yacht to a beach destination. Technically, the Blumarine woman is in the city, but mentally she’s halfway along the Amalfi Coast, with a delicious plate of linguine waiting for her at Nerano’s Lo Scoglio.
Rather than offering a series of resort clichés, Koma “dissects the psychology of summer”: the alluring illusion of heightened sensuality, linen trousers or a skimpy bikini that can solve (almost) all life’s problems. His message was less festive costumes and more cinematic, glamorous transformations.
Classic femininity is filtered through Koma’s sharper architectural lens. There were slip dresses and floral prints, but nothing sentimental or girly. A tuxedo jacket, casually tied with a silk scarf, was reminiscent of Helmut Newton’s imperious heroine in Summer Vacation. The dramatic cape unbuttons into cascading fringes that move in a languid motion, visually representing the feeling you’d have after a lazy day sipping Sprite alongside expensive drinks. Capano At the Hotel Lido Excelsior in Venice.
Meanwhile, bougainvillea is blooming everywhere. For Coma, who is still in the honeymoon phase of the Italian lifestyle, the flower symbolizes all the overheated romance of the Mediterranean coast: salt on tanned skin, and summer dalliances best left unrecorded under parasols. Yet even at its most subdued, the series retains an undercurrent of discipline. Koma’s Blumarine exudes heat and sensuality, yet is tightly controlled.
Then there’s Irina Shayk, who in this collection embodies the mature femininity that Koma appreciates. Shayk exudes sex appeal that doesn’t require approval from others. If Newton had ever encountered her, she might have been immortalized in black and white at a Blumarine event and draped on a bench somewhere in Monte Carlo.
“I think women want to dress up again,” Coma said, referring to the phenomenon of the first heat wave that turned cities into open-air fashion shows, with everyone baring skin and full of drama. Summer dressing isn’t just about practicality; It’s instinctive and sometimes delusional. When the temperatures rise, both emotionally and meteorologically, Koma bets the world’s wannabe Shayks will turn to Blumarine for a stylish (un)dress.
