“Everything is meant to have more than one life,” Tracy Reese said over Zoom. This has long been her approach to design, and it’s evident in a resort collection marked by Reese’s signature A-line dresses and frilled tops, with a smattering beaded separates. “It’s not just for going away, it’s not just for going out,” she elaborated. “It’s important for sustainability that everything isn’t pigeonholed just for one particular moment.”
Reese leaned into her affinity for prints, employing a graphic, triangle design for a puff-sleeve mini, pencil skirt, and harem-pant jumpsuit, among other pieces. “This has all the jewel tones that look rich and beautiful for the season,” she said of a floral design printed on a black shift dress and other hallmark silhouettes, “but it’s hand-drawn, so it feels like embroidery.” The art nouveau poppy print that enlivens a peplum top was a collaboration between Reese and a design assistant who joined the Hope For Flowers team late last year. “This was the first print that she pieced together, so that was a proud internal moment,” Reese noted.
Though the collection is largely composed of designs Reese reinterprets season after season—smocked shirting, fringed trousers, sailor pants, and everyday dresses—newness arrives in the form of cropped jackets with sequin collars and pockets, as well as a double-hem bubble skirt and and a beaded camisole in punchy dark green with a matching pencil skirt. “The skirt is actually Naia satin [a responsible fabric] in the front and organic cotton in the back,” she said of the latter. “That gives it a little more oomph. And also, you’re not sitting on beads.” It’s the epitome of a Hope For Flowers piece: pretty, thoughtful, practical.