Mexico City was the starting point for Creatures of Comfort’s creative director Jade Lai, who visited the capital over the summer for the first time and found herself energized by the city’s colorful Modernist architecture, bustling cultural scene and local artisans. Her spring collection mixed festive folk art references and a boldly feminine sensibility inspired by Frida Kahlo, whose portraits littered Lai’s mood board for the season. One particular oil painting of Kahlo’s “The Broken Column,” which depicts her topless in a white harness after spinal surgery circa 1944, informed a few of Lai’s harness-inspired looks, and elsewhere, Kahlo’s visage was embroidered on a black denim jacket.
Pajamalike separates and slips in fluid, textured silk popped with a distinctive flair in saturated hues of green and yellow. The best looks in the lineup invoked a fun, vibrant spirit, such as a roomy seersucker cotton dot-print dress worn over coordinating cropped, ruffled trousers — inspired by a papier–mâché doll Lai discovered in the city — or several dresses in bright red gingham.