Resort has long been most successful for big-name, big-dollar designers because their faithful clientele are the kind of women who have the extra cash to take mid-winter jaunts to Borneo with a Louis Vuitton tote full of new resort clothes tucked under their arm.
PERHAPS you’ve wondered about the seemingly misplaced linen dresses, wispy silk pantsuits and teeny-tiny bikinis that bob awkwardly in the sea of tweedy suits and thick merino sweaters that flood department stores during the chilly days filling the calendar from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day.
No, these sartorial entries aren’t part of a boutique business 039 . 0000.00born of the specialized needs of Polar Bear Club members. They’re part of a growing fashion 039 . 0002.04business called “resort,” an abbreviated collection many designers ship to stores for sale during mid-winter vacation season.
Also referred to as “pre-spring” or “cruise” collections (former fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi liked to call his line “spa”), resort wear normally shows up in stores in November and remains there through January, when design039 . 0000.02ers’ spring shipments begin to arrive.
Why resort? According to the Travel Industry Association of America, the number of people taking winter trips has grown about 20 percent over the past eight years, with many of them choosing to go somewhere warm. Travelers from cold winter climes can’t be expected 039 . 0000.00to wear their sweaters in the sand, so the demand for resort lines has grown exponentially.
Still, cruise wear gets little respect in the big fashion picture. Unlike New York’s biannual fall and spring fashion shows, resort is shown to fashion editors by appointment in the designer’s showroom. It’s often ignored by magazines. Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar sometime devote a few front-of-the-book pages to resort staples like sandals, slip dresses and bathing suits, though they rarely afford the lines full-blown photo shoots. It’s usually misunderstood by shoppers – if you’re not planning a tropical getaway, do you really want to be bothered with racks of pastel cotton skirts marked full-price when there are red-lined sweater vests nearby?
Regardless, major department 039 . 0000.00stores begin showing resort collections very late in the year, though they’re normally passed over by those on a mission for Christmas presents. Even as catalog shoppers are dog-earring pages showing warm presents for family and friends, Saks sends out a resort catalog of cheery, spare clothing to lure prospective shoppers – those who hope there’s a plane ticket to someplace sandy in their stockings.
One of these clothes-conscious va039 . 0000.00cationers is Jennifer Jones, 27, jets off for the island of Culebra, near Puerto Rico, each February for a 039 . 0002.04mid-winter holiday. “Before I go, I spend about $500 on new clothes,” Jones says of her resort buys. “I buy good basics, a bathing suit, and at least one dress I can unpack and wear right out to dinner without worrying about wrinkles. The last thing you want to do is use an iron on vacation.”
New York designer Pixie Yates, who is debuting her 15-piece resort 039 . 0000.02line, says she developed the collection with her island-bound customers’ comfort in mind. Thus, it includes packable cotton pique Bermuda shorts with scalloped edges, stretch poplin camisoles, and abbreviated polo pullovers – all in mix-and-matchable navy and white.
Though Yates believes her line will do 039 . 0000.00well in the Northeast, where it will be marketed to vacationers, she expects it will sell better in states that are warm year-round, such as Florida and South Carolina. There, resort wear can be worn in any season.
Frank Doroff, executive vice president of Bloomingdale’s, where cruise wear makes up 10 percent of the store’s total inventory during the winter, says sales of resort wear is consistently stronger in states where it’s beach day every day.
He explains that in New York, however, cruise shoppers are those who want to get a jump start on building their spring wardrobe with a warm-weather piece by Chanel, or Ralph Lauren, or Calvin Klein.
Needless to say, in Manhattan it’s not coupon-clipping, bargain-039 . 0000.00basement shoppers who are snapping up these lines. Resort has long been most successful for big-name, big-dollar designers because their faithful clientele are the kind of women who have the extra cash to take mid-winter jaunts to Borneo with a Louis Vuitton tote full of new resort clothes tucked under their arm.
What are other designers showing this year? For the European line Celine, American designer Michael Kors has chosen to show basics like cashmere sweaters 039 . 0000.00and hip-hugger silk pants in daffodil yellow, light blue and white.
Oscar de la Renta makes leather safe for pre-spring by showing it on preppy leather A-line skirts, and Donna Karan took a liking to long, layered looks in organdy, linen and cotton, all in pristine white.
John Bartlett played it safe, showing chic navy and white resort wear on nautical-inspired pieces like sailor’s pants and shirts.
Still, there are those who never 039 . 0000.00check out these designer options and strike out on holiday unprepared.
For them, the Allegro Jack Tar Village in the Dominican Republic offers a program called “Essentials.” For just $385, mid-winter visitors who come with empty suitcases are allowed to put together a cruise wardrobe during a shopping spree when they first arrive at the resort. Free laundry service and a duffel to take it home in are included.
Talk about holidays in the sun.
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