Maria McManus delivered a smartly edited collection for resort. Perhaps a reason for its concise point of view was the fact that she was inspired by the Atacama Desert—not its mystical beauty, but rather the fact that its vast terrain in Chile has become the dumping ground for clothing manufacturers around the world.
“What’s crazy is that it’s not just the stuff we’ve worn and thrown out, it’s actually excess inventory—85% of it is excess inventory,” she explained during an appointment at her Manhattan showroom. Sustainability has always been the key driver of McManus’s creativity; something that can sometimes seem at odds with the fashion industry, with its constant demands for newness, for trends, for what’s flashy. But her collections are considered, with familiar silhouettes and fabrics that get a bit of an upgrade each season so that you can opt into the newness if you’d like, or keep wearing your old pieces by the designer without looking like you are “out of style.”
The newness this season came by way of denim; Japanese organic cotton was used for barrel-legged trousers created by a seam that wrapped around the leg, and her classic button-down shirt with a cocooning back, which can double as a handsome low-key jacket. Another lighter-weight Japanese denim in a shade of butterscotch was used on a series of transitional pieces, including a take on the field jacket and a trench coat with a removable scarf.
McManus is always trying to find the most sustainable materials to work with, going to great lengths to tell you when something is—or isn’t—up to the level she would like. A metallic tweed was only partially sustainable, the wool base was “mulesing-free wool” but the metallic details were polyester. “Sometimes we really struggle to find those novelty materials,” she noted. But elsewhere, a black sheer geometric jacquard pencil skirt and gray organza skirt were both made from deadstock fabrics. “I was chatting with Hillary Taymour from Collina Strada recently and she was really encouraging me to do more in the deadstock world,” she explained. McManus also brought in deadstock fabric to line the inside of her tailored separates.