Rebecca Taylor SPRING 2021 READY-TO-WEAR Collection

Rebecca Taylor SPRING 2021 READY-TO-WEAR

Rebecca Taylor the designer stepped away from her company about a year ago, and Rebecca Taylor the brand has a new owner: Vince. It’s an interesting link-up; the labels are aesthetic opposites, but tend to be sold in the same section of department stores at similar price points. Caroline Belhumeur has spent nearly three years carefully transforming Vince from an “elevated basics brand” to one that stands for luxury, timelessness, and quality, and in January, she hired her former Club Monaco colleague Steven Cateron to help reimagine RT.

Cateron joined a brand with a loyal following, one that spans ages and cities; some women have been shopping RT since the 1990s. Breathing new life into a label without alienating its clientele is always tricky. Much of Cateron’s influence has been behind-the-scenes thus far; in some ways, Rebecca Taylor was operating on an outdated model, with various sub-brands (like La Vie, a more casual offering, and Tailored, a new-ish line of suits) and massive collections featuring hundreds of SKUs. Editing was his first task: He brought everything back under the Rebecca Taylor name, and said the spring 2021 collection is the smallest it’s ever been. This reset couldn’t have come at a better time; most designers are scaling back, both for financial reasons and simply to refocus on their strengths.

Cateron was faithful to RT’s signatures—dresses, eyelet, lace, ruffles, and other feminine flourishes—but reinterpreted them in a cleaner, more sensual way. His moodboard was pinned with vintage photography, and there were touches of the ’50s and ’70s in the clothes, from capelet details and shirred slips (the former) to pointelle knits and laser-cut suede trousers (the latter).

Plissé minis and charmeuse jumpsuits made subtler, more gestural statements than the prints and ruffles of years past, while crinkled skirts and cotton midi dresses brought a more casual spin to RT’s frocks. Knowing how his own girlfriends shop and style themselves, Cateron designed each dress with versatility and fluidity in mind. “My friends want a dress they can wear to a wedding one night and out to dinner in New York the next,” he said. For those of us still working from home, he pointed out a knit maxi with balloon sleeves and an open back: striking enough for an al fresco dinner party or backyard wedding, but soft enough to curl up on the couch with your laptop.

See every single look from Rebecca Taylor SPRING 2021 READY-TO-WEAR Collection in the gallery, below :

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source: Vogue