COMFORT CALL

Laurence + Chicos’s Fall/Winter 17 collection is the kind of clothes you would wear exploring inside your dreamscape at night. Glamorous, encompassing, and psychedelic, the model’s looked as if they had just rolled out of bed at a high class hotel, carrying the comforters with them.

Oversized pearls grace necks, shoes, and even create delicate patterns on the vibrant textiles that swaddle each model. The color story, full of gentle pinks, lime green, black, and a blue you’d find in the Microsoft Word logo, is fresh and comfortable in a way that makes it feel lived in. Bold mixes of doodles by Laurence Li himself and psychedelic prints fit into the imaginative world that they’ve created for the presentation. The doodles find home amongst the swollen coats that can only be commentary on our culture’s obsession with comfort. Corsets, slip dresses, and funky pajama sets further encourage this theme, backed by black turtlenecks and mid-calf socks. Laurence + Chico transform off the shoulder tops by placing puffed up eye masks where sleeves should be, and replace bows with pillows that may soon erupt all over the presentation floor.

              While the collection is overloaded with details, colors, and doodles, not once does it feel heavy or weighed down. There is a lightness and ease to the designs despite bold silhouettes and delicate pearls. In what could have been misread as silly or goofy becomes a serious and focused collection of garments that allow the mind to wander in a new dream. Laurence and Chico demonstrated their strength as designers in the ability to transform and elevate beyond the norms ready-to-wear, presenting a world where comforters can be jackets and slippers are suitable for more than just lounging around the house. It’s collections like this where the longer you look the more you see, accelerating hopes for the return of maximalist fashion.