Gingham — from picnic-spread variety to buffalo plaid — is a popular motif this season. The designers at Sportmax delivered a fresh take on the trend. They used an exploded version on a collarless jute coat and a cropped wrap top and skirt, and a more abstracted take, a fil coupe tufted check, for a Fifties-style jacket over a black pencil skirt. A brushlike black-and-white print on several casual dresses also evoked gingham.
The show notes described the lineup as swaying to the “relaxed beat of summer easy.” Those latter painterly looks captured the vibe effectively.
Another feature throughout: the knot. Tops and dresses were tied at the front and side. These worked better when kept simple. Some of the more elaborate renditions, the white asymmetric dress with a shoulder twist, for example, turned cumbersome.