Maria McManus’s starting point for pre-fall was Agnes Martin, the abstract expressionist painter known for her grid-like color landscapes. “There was lots to play with, from her personal style to the artworks themselves,” the designer said at a showroom appointment. A color palette of creamy whites, baby blues and dark navy, chocolate brown, and liquid copper was inspired by Martin’s paintings; its best execution came on a series of super-soft space-dyed knits. “It’s actually a print that we were able to do with our mill that’s inspired by her work, specifically that whole group of untitled paintings from 1997,” McManus said. It added a certain lightness to the collection and was a step forward in expanding the designer’s textural oeuvre, as she rarely indulges in prints. A swingy knit dress with a pleated skirt in blocks of black, brown, and cream was an easy way to make one of her go-to silhouettes feel new. Ditto the trench coat, which she made in a newly developed fabric made from recycled cupro and organic cotton in a decadent shade of “bitter chocolate brown.”
A cotton tunic with short, shirred sleeves, which she paired with narrow bootcut trousers was inspired by the sturdy clothes worn by the painter in photographs taken of her late in her career. Though the look had McManus’s classic minimal lines, there was an austerity to the shapes that felt directly connected to Martin’s energy. And while most of the models in the lookbook are wearing her knitted skivvies as pants (continuing the tradition begun by Miuccia Prada earlier this year at Miu Miu), McManus’s pleated trousers are not to be missed—and with good reason—she’s working with a patternmaker formerly associated with Katayone Adeli, a New York designer popular 25 years ago for her perfect fit pants.