Sea RESORT 2021
Sean Monahan and Monica Paolini have been taking their Sea collections to Copenhagen for a few seasons now. If these were “normal times,” they’d be on their way to Denmark next week for the spring shows, but that isn’t happening this year for obvious reasons (and, you know, because we’re banned). Sea’s voluminous dresses and un-precious sensibility resonate with the Copenhagen woman; street style photos in the Scandi city often include a few of them wearing Sea dresses with flat boots or sneakers, all the better to biking along the canal. The designers had those women in mind when it came time to photograph their resort collection, so instead of staging a look book shoot, they shipped clothes to friends around the world and asked them to take their own photos. The results include a glimpse of Sea’s new children’s line too: Each woman styled and photographed herself with her daughter or son in miniaturized versions of their looks. Caroline Bille Brahe wore a flowery jumpsuit with Crocs, her daughter Sonya a puffed-sleeve floral tee; Amanda Brooks chose a quilted Liberty jacket and matching pajama pants to pose with her daughter, dressed in a crochet sweater and pearl-studded jeans, with their horse in an English field. Daphne Javitch modeled an airy cotton dress with giant sleeves; her toddler son wore a little denim jumpsuit. Helene Skytte matched her daughter in turquoise florals and sport sandals; and several moms chose pieces with Sea’s signature oversized collars, like a mustard plaid linen coat and a pink acid-wash T-shirt. Like other designers who have cast their friends or employees as models, the photos have a more causal, “real life” air to them, and the clothes register as more wearable too.
Past resort collections may have included a few fancier pieces for the holidays, but this was mostly designed in lockdown, and New Year’s Eve parties were far from the designers’ minds. “We were thinking about things that just felt easy and that you could wear at home,” Paolini said, pointing out the away-from-the-body shapes, natural fabrics, and unstructured sleeves. That wasn’t a huge change, of course; Sea’s strengths are in pretty but unfussy clothes that are comfortable and truly livable, particularly its dresses. They’re the kind you’d instinctively wear with Birkenstocks or flats, not stilettos, and that was true long before the pandemic. Now that stores have reopened in New York, Sea’s flagship on Canal Street is among the few we might actually venture into, filled with breezy yet grown-up cotton dresses that can stand up to this summer’s 90-degree heat.
See every single look from Sea RESORT 2021 Collection in the gallery, below :
source: Vogue
Great article! Thank you!