NEW YORK — With an expanded store in Houston, a new boutique coming to Austin and two stores in Dallas, Tory Burch has a lot of fans in Texas who love her casual sunny styles — just look at the number of Burch ballet flats with the distinctive double T logo at any gathering.
But the designer isn't content to rest on her reputation.
Her spring 2015 collection, which debuted on a bright morning when sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto the runway at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, has plenty of looks that Burch fans lust after — jacquard tunics, crocheted tweed jackets, cotton button-down shirts, cable knit sweaters.
The perpetually perfect designer also has an edgier side, which she delights in revealing.
But the perpetually perfect designer also has an edgier side, which she delights in revealing.
Burch based the collection on the spirit of Francois Gilot and her often fractious relationship with her much older lover, Pablo Picasso, during the decade beginning in 1943 in the sleepy French town of Vallauris. The inspiration is reflected in prints that resemble the ceramics that the artist worked with during their relationship, squiggly designs that look like a Picasso painting and toile-print patterns of French country scenes.
The collection is "a play between raw and refined," Burch said in the program notes, as she mixed raw linen, burlap crepe and raffia tweeds with textured knits, silks and refined beading. A number of looks had an unfinished quality, with fringe hems on dresses and shorts, smocked skirts, leather pants in a basket-weave pattern and woodgrain-stripe prints, accessorized with sensible, lace-tie shoes. The only touch of glitter came at the end in a linen skirt and coat with exquisite silver leaf-print beading and a vest and dress in metallic jacquard print on raw linen.
The collection has a classic feeling that reflects Burch's mood — there are no traces of her Fitbit bracelets or other 21st century tech accessories. But she features some nifty bags that duplicate basket weave and knit prints in the collection and cross-body handbags emblazoned with a Picasso-like image on the front.
Tory Burch basket-weave knit top and metaliic jacquard and linen skirt.
Shoppers will line up at Katy Mills Mall as Primark opens its first Houston area store on November 20.Photo courtesy of Primark/Instagram 