Le Petit Prince was a favorite book of Tory Burch’s as a child. At a Resort appointment today, she quoted its fundamental lesson a couple of times: “It is only in the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Applying that notion to her ready-to-wear, she said she came up with a collectsion of things she loves, and pointed to a tunic in blue oxford broadcloth that was modeled after one her late father used to wear. (His wardrobe has provided a bounty of ideas over the years.) There was all manner of shirts, from a silk blouse with scalloped collar and cuffs to an easy poplin popover top with a drawstring waist, and the shirtdress was fundamental to the collectsion, too.
Where florals dominated her Fall outing, the prints here paid subtle homage to the Little Prince, via swirling celestial words and naive hand-drawn sketches. Burch also emphasized stripes. The charm of the collectsion was in its polished simplicity. Scroll through her Resort lineup of a year ago, and you’ll see she was emphasizing embroidery and embellishment. That sense of effusiveness has been replaced by efficiency. Which isn’t to say the collectsion was cold; quite the contrary—she had a chunky intarsia sweater spelling out L-O-V-E, after all. Let’s call it a winning lack of pretense, a perfect case in point being the silk cotton sundress in chambray blue. Yes, it was striped with embroidery, but with white thread, not beads, and the result was remarkably light and effortless, making it the kind of piece that women will reach for again and again.
